Ronnie O’Sullivan – Mark Joyce
O’SULLIVAN 0-1 JOYCE (0-0)
Ronnie has seen enough of the first frame after the yellow disappears. Built up an early lead, but a bad miss on a red among the balls costs him the chance of an early lead. A nice frame to settle Joyce down, you would suggest.
O’SULLIVAN 0-0 JOYCE (39-74)
And into the lead in this frame as break reaches 52. Just those two troublesome reds the issue to deal with. Cracks home a brilliant double on the red to keep the break going and in goes the black. No position on the final red, but a very sharp break of 60 before he runs safe.
And Ronnie misses the red off one cushion trying to escape from the snooker. Escapes the second time, but overhits the white and has left this red. Chance for Joyce to get the frame w0n. In goes red and black. Looks like a 1-0 lead.
O’SULLIVAN 0-0 JOYCE (39-28)
A fairly rapid 28 from Joyce. He is right back in the hunt in this opening frame with two difficult reds near the right side cushion the only obvious problems.
O’SULLIVAN 0-0 JOYCE (39-0)
A break of 23 from Ronnie before he runs out of position, but world No. 67 Joyce can’t float home a long red. Was an obvious half-chance, but not snaffled up by Mark. And a poor safety shot presents O’Sullivan with another chance to press on in this opening frame of a possible 11 in the last 64. But he then misses a red using his left hand. Nobody expected that. A few mobile phones going off as Joyce returns to the table.
O’SULLIVAN 0-0 JOYCE (6-0)
A huge reception for O’Sullivan ahead of this match. Joyce qualified for this event with a 6-3 win over Andy Lee, but this will be his first match at the venue. And straight onto the main TV table. Tidy opening red by Ronnie to get his day up and running. Followed by a tidy ‘Alex Higgins’ blue to the green bag.
AROUND THE TABLES: MATCHES COMING UP
All of these are the race to six frames for a place in the last 32.
Judd Trump v Michael White Ronnie O’Sullivan v Mark JoyceAnthony McGill v Sam Craigie Daniel Wells v Neil RobertsonShaun Murphy v Dominic Dale Robbie Williams v Gary WilsonLong Zehuang v Ding Junhui Pang Junxu v Fan Zhengyi
O’Sullivan turns on the style with terrific plant
WORLD CHAMPION BRECEL STUNNED BY DAVIS
It was a stunning victory for Mark Davis, who dumped out reigning world champion Luca Brecel from the International Championship in Tianjin. It will arguably go down as one of the best wins in Davis’ career, as a 4-0 lead ultimately set the 51-year-old on the way to a 6-3 victory. There were no such problems for world No. 5 Mark Selby, who progressed past Stuart Carrington with a 6-2 win. But Mark Williams is also out of the event after suffering a 6-3 defeat to Zhang Anda, who hit breaks of 77, 85, 67, 77, 128 and 83 in a fine victory against the three-time Crucible winner.
GOOD MORNING AND WELCOME BACK
Another fascinating day’s play is on the cards at the International Championship in Tianjin.
World No. 1 Ronnie O’Sullivan meets Mark Joyce in the last 64 after a heavy-scoring 6-1 win against 1997 world champion Ken Doherty on Sunday, while defending champion Judd Trump is up against Michael White after his resounding 6-0 whitewash of 12-year-old Wang Xinzhong that saw Trump begin the match with two centuries.
Elsewhere this manic Monday morning, or if you prefer the evening session in China, we have Neil Robertson facing Daniel Wells and Shaun Murphy meeting Dominic Dale. Should be a riveting few hours ahead.
Boys on the baize at 11:30am GMT.
‘Shot of the match!’ – O’Sullivan dispatches long red to display confidence
What happened yesterday?
It was a battle of icons as Ronnie O’Sullivan breezed past Ken Doherty to claim a place in the second round of the International Championship in China.
Breaks of 112, 81 and 66 gave ‘The Rocket’ a 3-1 lead at the mid-session interval and he picked up where he left off in the fifth with a 78 following some costly mistakes from Doherty.
That was the general theme of the match. In truth, O’Sullivan barely got out of second gear but was let-off time and time again by Doherty, who failed to capitalise on the opportunities that were presented to him.
The Rocket sealed the 6-1 victory with a 68 in the seventh to set up a second-round tie with Mark Joyce.
Meanwhile, Judd Trump was in no mood to waste time in his first round match of the whitewashing 12-year-old Wang Xinzhong 6-0 to make it 21 wins on the bounce as he begins his quest for a fourth straight title.
Trump has been in dazzling form on the baize en route to landing the Wuhan, English, and Northern Ireland Opens, and this week can join Stephen Hendry as the only other player to bag a quartet of ranking events in succession.
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