O’Sullivan powers past White

England’s Ronnie O’Sullivan makes fellow Jimmy White pay for a poor display.

World number six, England’s Ronnie O’Sullivan made fellow Jimmy White pay for a poor display to reach the last-16 of the World Open at Glasgow. O’Sullivan beat the 48-year-old White 3-1 as he set up a clash with England’s Stephen Hendry.

The Rocket rallied to win the opening frame and hit a marvelous break of 79 to take a 2-0 lead in the fourth-round match.

However, former world champion White hit back with a break of 88 to keep hopes alive of causing an upset. But O’Sullivan made the world number 66 pay as he sealed the win.

“It’s great to play against White because he’s good to watch,” O’Sullivan told BBC Sport. “But it’s unfortunate for him that he’s good to watch - it means you concentrate throughout rather than switching off.

“He started nervously but that’s only to be expected when you haven’t reached the latter stages of a tournament for a while. When I missed I got away with it,” said the 36-year-old O’Sullivan.

Meanwhile, world number four Ding Junhui easily defeated Marcus Campell 3-0.

Ding displayed excellent skills as he beat an out of sorts Campbell, ranked 39th in the world, to make it into the quarter-finals.

The Chinese 23-year-old was off to a superb start with a century break to take the first frame, while a 54 in the next was sufficient to make it 2-0. There was a glimmer of hope for Scotland’s Campbell in the next frame but an error made it 3-0 as Ding reached the last-16.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2010.