Scottish Open 2020 - 'It was terrible' - O'Sullivan laments performance in win over Tian Pengfei

ByEurosport

Updated 10/12/2020 at 21:30 GMT

Ronnie O'Sullivan replaced his tip following his win over Allan Taylor and was not happy with how it performed in his meeting with Tian Pengfei at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes. He closed the match with an excellent break of 78, having knocked in a 93 when 3-2 behind, and will face Robbie Williams in the next round.

Snooker Scottish Open: Interview of Ronnie O'Sullivan in studio after his win against Tian Pengfei

Image credit: Eurosport

Ronnie O’Sullivan has described his performance in the 4-3 win over Tian Pengfei in the Scottish Open as "terrible", and lamented the state of his tip.

The world champion was off colour for much of the contest, but saved his best for the final two frames - and breaks of 93 and 78 sealed his place in the last 16.

O’Sullivan faces Robbie Williams later on Thursday, and is aware he will need to up his game to keep his hopes of winning the tournament alive.

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“It was terrible,” O’Sullivan told Eurosport of his 4-3 win. “Probably as bad a performance as you could do. That’s how it is sometimes.”

O'Sullivan replaced his tip following his win over Allan Taylor in the first round, and felt his cue action in victory over Chang Bingyu masked problems with the tip.

“The tip is not great,” he said. “I don’t want to make excuses but in the first match I kind of felt I was cueing well so you can override it but when you know something is not right with it, it starts to dent your confidence.

'It was terrible' - O'Sullivan laments performance

I just did not feel good, so I had to try and find a different cue action which would compensate for it. I found something in the last two frames, but you have got to hit everything out of the middle with that tip. There is no forgiveness. Some tips do give you some forgiveness.

The sound of the ball off the cue would not be unusual to the average snooker player, but O'Sullivan was unhappy with the noise.

“I want to put some headphones on as the noise is so bad,” he said. “When you have a good tip the noise is beautiful.

“I play snooker by sound and if it sounds good I get a bit of a buzz, but if it sounds bad it’s a hard day at the office.

I was missing so many balls by a long way. I was not timing it terrible, but it was not perfect and when you have to time everything so good it makes it hard.

Reflecting on his break of 78 in the final frame, which was started by a brilliant long red, he said: “It was frustration after a hard day at the office; you just throw caution to the wind.”