Ronnie O'Sullivan through to second round of 2023 Wuhan Open with win over Ken Doherty, Ding Junhui beats Ashley Hugill
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Updated 11/10/2023 at 15:40 GMT
Ronnie O'Sullivan collected a 5-1 win against 1997 world champion Ken Doherty at the Wuhan Open. The world No. 1, who was in the kind of form where any mistakes were punished, is still in with a chance of landing his second tournament win in China this year, and Ding Junhui defeat Ashley Hugill. Stream top snooker action live on discovery+, the Eurosport app and at eurosport.com
‘Like an art form’ – O’Sullivan wraps up win against Doherty in Wuhan, falls just short of century
Ronnie O'Sullivan proved too good for Ken Doherty as he won their opening-round match at the Wuhan Open 5-1, while Ding Junhui beat Ashley Hugill 5-3.
O'Sullivan made breaks of 88, 89 and 82 as he overcame the 54-year-old.
The world No. 1 had cut a frustrated figure at last week's English Open, going so far as to bite the tip off his cue in defeat to Zhang Anda.
He fell behind against Doherty, who missed one chance to build a big break in the opening frame, but returned with a second chance and took it.
The Irishman had a chance to go two up when he had the first real opening of the next frame but missed after his first red, and O’Sullivan came to the table with a break of 88, with a miss on a red bringing it to a close, as well as bringing an inspection of his new tip.
At 48-31 up in the third frame, O’Sullivan missed a pink into the bottom left and allowed Doherty in to attempt a snooker.
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O'Sullivan pleased with 'resilience' in win over Doherty at Wuhan Open
Doherty made one century last season and he never threatened to break his duck as he struggled to build any sizeable break.
The Irishman seized on a chance to sink one red and then the blue, but he was faced with a challenge of dealing with the final red, tight onto the left-hand cushion
He could not take his chance and O’Sullivan came back to take the lead in an ultimately scrappy third.
In the final frame before the mid-session interval, a tricky red was missed and O’Sullivan came in and elected to switch to the pink and then blue after several blacks in order to build an easier break, but with a century looking possible, a poor connection stopped him at 89.
After the restart, Doherty had a 12-0 advantage before resting the cue ball against the pack of reds.
O’Sullivan was able to force an error from his opponent and was given the chance to pick up some loose reds and start to move forward.
A miss from O’Sullivan left him with a 12-point advantage, but Doherty could only glance a red against the left-hand jaw to let his opponent back in to move within one frame of a last-64 match against Mark Davis.
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'O'Sullivan has just bitten his cue tip off!' - Watch moment star reacts to losing to Zhang
O’Sullivan got back in quickly in the winning frame, and he showed no sense of pain with a previously disclosed elbow problem, as he fell just short of a century once more.
After his success in Shanghai earlier in the season, O’Sullivan’s promised focus on this campaign’s four events in China appears to be holding for now. With Luca Brecel absent this week, he will retain his spot at the top of the rankings however far he goes in the tournament.
There was good news for the home crowd as China's Ding came out on top against Hugill.
Ding took the first frame but fell 2-1 behind before consecutive breaks of 75, 97 and 74 moved him 4-2 up.
Dspite a late rally from Hugill with a break of 69 to go one frame behind, Ding won the eighth frame to secure victory.
Si Jiahui made his way through to the next round against a fellow Chinese player, amateur Wang Xinzhong.
The world No. 30 notched just a single half-century break, of 71 as he cruised to a 5-2 victory, while Wang will take his 53 and 50 breaks as encouragement despite defeat.
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