Ronnie O'Sullivan beats Mark Williams to make quarters
26th April 2010
Ronnie O'Sullivan surged into the World Championship quarter-finals with a majestic 13-10 win over Mark Williams.
Resuming at 8-8, the pair shared the opening two frames before "the Rocket" stepped up a gear and took the next two, helped by a stunning break of 104.
Two-time champion Williams hit back with a 122, but O'Sullivan, eyeing a fourth title, hit 111 and 106 to win.
O'Sullivan will face the winner of the match between Mark Selby and Stephen Hendry, which finishes on Monday night.
Selby goes into Monday's later session with a 11-5 lead over the seven-time champion, while Ding Junhui and 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy resume their clash at 8-8 from 1900 BST.
After O'Sullivan and Williams shared 16 enthralling frames on Sunday, the packed Crucible arena would have been hoping for a repeat of the last-frame drama witnessed in their Masters semi-final three months ago.
O'Sullivan came out on top 6-5 in January, but apart from brief glimpses of magic from Williams, the current world number one rarely looked in danger of letting this second-round clash slip after a blistering display on Monday afternoon.
Having failed to make a century in the first two sessions, O'Sullivan, who last won the title in 2008, fired in three breaks over 100 in seven frames to leave the Welshman largely rooted to his chair.
"I managed to put a few decent frames together for a change," O'Sullivan said.
"I knew I needed to find form but out of panic and desperation I got the cue through to pot a few balls and find a bit of form.
There are times where I am awful in practice. I don't think my game is suited to winning this title
A 53 break was enough for O'Sullivan to take the day's opener and the pair continued to exchange blows as Williams knocked in a 53 to level the match once again.
O'Sullivan, so inconsistent in his first-round win against Liang Wenbo, was slowly beginning to fire and he soon rattled in a 104 to sneak ahead.
The lead was soon up to two frames as he cleared up after his opponent missed a cut on the red, but Williams sniffed an unlikely comeback as he produced his own fireworks that included an audacious double on the black to conclude a 122 break.
O'Sullivan looked in no mood to relinquish his lead, though, and rattled in two centuries to bring the crowd to their feet, leaving Williams to wave goodbye to the Crucible arena for another year.
Ding, UK champion winner at the start of the season, started the day leading 5-3 but breaks of 76 and 100 got Murphy back on level terms.
The Chinese number hit back to retain his two-frame advantage but 64 and 55 helped Murphy to take two of the session's last three frames to set up the evening's thrilling climax.
The winner will play Ali Carter who fought off a resiliant Joe Perry to finally come through 13-11.
Trailing 6-10 overnight, Perry won the first five frames to close in on victory, but the world number five dug deep with breaks of 104 and 82 before progressing after taking a scrappy 24th frame.
Carter said: "At 11-10, I was looking adversity in the face but I pulled it out of the bag."
Hendry has a mountain to climb to overturn a 11-5 deficit against the world number seven Selby.
The seven-time world champion lost the day's opening four frames to trail 4-8 with the Masters champion knocking in breaks of 96 and 62 and the misery continued as Hendry won just one of the session's last four frames.
O'Sullivan insisted he was not bothered who he faced in the last eight and added: "There are times where I am awful in practice, I can't pot a ball but out of desperation on the match table, I am pulling it off.
"I don't think my game is suited to winning this title."
Source:BBC
