Ronnie O’Sullivan not at his best but beats Ben Woollaston to reach third round of Scottish Open
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Updated 30/11/2022 at 08:26 GMT
World No. 1 Ronnie O’Sullivan took a 4-2 victory against Ben Woollaston at the Scottish Open in an entertaining last-64 match in Edinburgh. O’Sullivan won the opening three frames, before Woollaston dug deep to mount a mini fightback by taking the next two. However, the experience and quality of the seven-time world champion got him through to the third round.
O’Sullivan and Woollaston bewildered by cue ball not dropping into pocket
Ronnie O’Sullivan was far from his best but beat Ben Woollaston 4-2 in an entertaining match to reach the third round of the Scottish Open.
O’Sullivan didn’t play as fast as he did in his opening match of the week in Edinburgh on Monday, but still secured a convincing victory.
He will play Ken Doherty or Gary Wilson in the last 32.
The Rocket was immediately less aggressive from the get-go compared to his opening match, turning down a few long shots in favour of a safety.
He laid a tough Chinese snooker for Woollaston which forced an error. O’Sullivan was on a break of 51 and missed a routine red.
Woollaston couldn’t punish him though despite having two more opportunities which handed the frame to his opponent.
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‘Look at that for a shot!’ – O’Sullivan pulls off rare five-cushion escape
The world No. 44 was in first in the next frame and pulled off some great shots, but ran out of position on 55 so decided to knock the black safe.
O’Sullivan opened up the reds then cut in a red into the middle from left to right and cleared all of the balls up to the final black.
With the scores at 58-55, O’Sullivan needed the black so went for an ambitious cross-double. He missed and left Woollaston with a long shot to the bottom left, which he missed and left O’Sullivan with an easy pot to the bottom right to double his lead.
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O'Sullivan wins dramatic second frame on the final black
In the third frame, O’Sullivan was on a maximum early on but missed a red to the middle. Again, Woollaston was not able to take advantage as he missed a pink.
O’Sullivan stepped in and took the frame to go within one of victory.
A remarkable moment in the fourth frame saw the cue ball somehow not drop into the pocket when O’Sullivan played a safety shot to the bewilderment of both players.
Woollaston dug deep and played some great shots to get a break going, before clearing the table with 132.
He had another good chance in the fifth frame, but left himself with a tricky blue to the green pocket which went wide of the mark.
O’Sullivan looked set to make a match-winning break but missed a tough red which would have given him the game.
A few safety shots later, Woollaston produced an outstanding pot on a red from the bottom of the table into the top left pocket.
He made a great break of 41 from it to steal the frame and give himself serious hope of doing something special.
But Woollaston missed an easy black off its spot at the start of the sixth, which left O’Sullivan in. The seven-time world champion potted some delightful long shots during his break of 93 to finally get over the line.
Elsewhere, Mark Selby whitewashed John Astley 4-0 with breaks of 59, 92 and 85 to book a place in the last 32 against Robert Milkins.
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