Ronnie O'Sullivan recovers from slow start to power past Ding Junhui
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Updated 21/03/2018 at 21:30 GMT
Ronnie O'Sullivan recovered from two frames down to produce a sparkling display as he powered past Ding Junhui 6-3 and into the Players Championship semi-finals.
Britain's Ronnie O'Sullivan plays a shot during the final of the Hong Kong Masters snooker tournament on July 23, 2017.
Image credit: Getty Images
O’Sullivan was sloppy at the start and some basic errors allowed Ding to take the opening two frames, despite a half century break from the Rocket in the second.
O’Sullivan’s frustration was evident as he started to slash at shots and it looked as if he could allow the match to get away with him, as Ding was ruthlessly efficient in taking his chances.
However O’Sullivan found a way in the third as Ding missed a couple of crucial reds, as well as being on the wrong end of an unfortunate double kiss.
And the Rocket kicked on off that with an incredible century break of 134 to level things up, which included an outrageous long red.
After the interval O’Sullivan got in amongst the balls again and despite failing to totally clear up he led for the first time.
A poor safety from O’Sullivan gave Ding the opportunity to pounce and he did exactly that with a superb clearance of 119.
Ding was unlucky in the seventh when he went in off after a fantastic long opening red. O’Sullivan missed a red of his own before another poor safety gave Ding another chance, which he gleefully accepted.
Another unfortunate bit of luck came as he caught the green when trying to screw down to the blue, which forced him to play the safety. It subsequently took O’Sullivan a couple of attempts but he eventually took the frame.
A second O’Sullivan century took him one away from victory and in the ninth frame he was at his sparkling best, rolling in a break of 121 to seal the match.
He will face the winner the winner of the match between Neil Robertson and Judd Trump.
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