Snooker news - O'Sullivan fights back to beat Doherty, Trump survives Dale scare

ByAlexander Netherton

Updated 02/12/2018 at 23:39 GMT

Ronnie O'Sullivan came back from 4-1 down to pull off a 6-5 win against Ken Doherty in the second round of the UK Championships.

Judd Trump made swift progress in York

Image credit: PA Sport

Doherty's break of 66 in the first frame gave him an early lead before O'Sullivan scraped the second frame.

Three plus-70 breaks in consecutive frames gave Doherty a commanding 4-1 lead and just two frames from the third round.

'That was some break' - Doherty opens up with half-century against O'Sullivan

But O'Sullivan fought back with two 70-breaks of his own as he took four frames in a row, leaving him one frame from victory, only to see Doherty hit back.

A break of 58 in the final frame as O'Sullivan held his nerve gave him a crucial victory.

“I just stuck in there, I felt I am enjoying playing so it was worth it to see what happened,” O’Sullivan told Eurosport.

“He completely outplayed me in the first five frames, was the stronger player and was playing with freedom.

“I felt very nervous today.”

The defeated Doherty admitted he was upset to have squandered his chance.

“I am a little bit disappointed. I had some chances and pushed him all the way – just a couple of shots here and there," Doherty said.

“I did my best and it was very, very close at the end. Hopefully I can carry that forward and take that from the match, even though I lost."

China's Ding Junhui also made it through to the second round.

However, it was far from easy progress as England's Matthew Selt took him to the full 11 frames.

In the evening session, Judd Tump came through a titanic tussle against Dominic Dale.

The fifth seed had a fight on his hands against a man fighting or his place on the tour next season but eventually edged through 6-5.

Trump could and should have finished the game off at 6-4 but missed twice on the black to win.

However, he came back in the final frame with a century to seal his place in the third round.

Seventh seed Mark Allen came through his third-round match 6-2 against Rory McLeod.

ROUND TWO RESULTS

Gary Wilson 6-3 Sam Baird
Ding Junhui 6-5 Matthew Selt
Jak Jones 6-5 Joe Swail
David Gilbert 6-4 Peter Ebdon
Luca Brecel 6-5 Liam Highfield
Yan Bingtao 6-1 Paul Davison
Martin O'Donnell 6-2 Chen Feilong
Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-5 Ken Doherty
Mark King 6-2 Li Hang
Joe Perry 6-1 Michael Holt
Mark Joynce 4-6 Lu Ning
Tom Ford 6-5 Robert Milkins
James Cahill 5-6 Sunny Akani
Stuart Bingham 6-5 Jurt Maflin
Kryen Wilson 6-2 Mike Dunn
Ian Burns 0-6 Barry Hawkins
Jack Liswoski 6-1 Mei Xi Wen
Zhou Yuelong 6-4 Mark Davis
Neil Robertson 6-3 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Daniel Wells 0-6 Mark Williams
Xiao Guodong 6-3 Ben Woollaston
Stephen Magure 6-4 Scott Donaldson
Tian Pengfei 6-2 Jimmy Robertson
Alan McManus 6-5 John Higgins
Akani Songsermsawad 6-5 James Cahill
Judd Trump 6-5 Dominic Dale
Mark Allen 6-2 Rory McLeod
Ali Carter 6-4 Chris Wakelin
Joe O'Connor 6-3 Andrew Higginson
Hossein Vafaei 6-4 Martin Gould

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