Ronnie O’Sullivan was ‘in control’ - Jimmy White and Alan McManus react after David Grace causes big upset
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Updated 19/10/2022 at 15:12 GMT
Ronnie O’Sullivan was “in control of the match” at 2-0 up against David Grace, say Jimmy White and Alan McManus as they gave big credit to the world No. 49 for his “brilliant performance". The match appeared to be going O’Sullivan’s way until Grace won three frames in a row, plus the decider, to knock out the seven-time world champion at the Northern Ireland Open in Belfast.
'Oh, wow!' - Crazy fluke from Grace hurts O'Sullivan
Eurosport pundits Jimmy White and Alan McManus believe Ronnie O’Sullivan was “in control of the match” until David Grace put in a “brilliant performance” to fight back and win at the Northern Ireland Open.
O’Sullivan was 2-0 up in the second round match in Belfast, but Grace came back and was soon 3-2 up after taking advantage of a wild fluke.
In the sixth frame, Grace missed several opportunities to close out the match as O’Sullivan sent the contest to a decider, only for the world No. 49 to clinch the final frame.
“David Grace played fantastic from 2-0 down,” White said in the Eurosport studio. “He showed what a great player he is.
“To do it on the centre stage, against the world champion, at a venue like this, it will give him great confidence going forward.
‘He deserved his win. From 2-0 down, O’Sullivan was in control of the match. Grace missed a couple of balls and Ronnie did what he did best to make it three each. But he potted some good balls in that last frame.”
McManus concurred with White’s comments and added: “A brilliant performance. You have to go out there and say, ‘I’m going to play my game today. Ronnie might be too good, but don’t worry about that’.
“Once he got into the match at 2-2, David looked the favourite on the strength of what we saw in the first four frames.”
Grace, who will play Tian Pengfei in the third round, was delighted with what was one of the biggest victories of his career.
“I made hard work of it!” said Grace. “You don’t normally get a second chance. I missed the first chance to win 4-2 when I lost the cue ball and missed a smelly one.
“That’s normally when the snooker gods don’t forgive you, but luckily they were on my side today.
“It was going really bad at 2-0. I’m proud that I managed to find the cue ball control to make a couple of breaks in the middle of the match.
“When you play the legends, they get better when they go in front. It was just nice to get myself a chance in that match.”
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