Ronnie O’Sullivan overcame a troublesome ankle injury to progress into the third round of the Dafabet English Open, setting up a clash with China’s Zhang Yong. O’Sullivan, who wore blue trainers in his first-round win, threatened to pull out of the tournament after being told he had to wear the correct footwear by organisers. However, the ‘Rocket’ was given an exemption by World Snooker due to his injury and, sporting black trainers this time, he advanced into the next round with a comfortable 4-1 victory over Mark Davis.
The five-time world champion, who is yet to win an event in the 2017/18 season, lost the opening frame but he then proceeding to rattle off the next four frames, making breaks of 68, 50, 136 and 134. England’s finest will now take on 22-year-old Chinese Yong, who is yet to go past the last-32 stage of a ranking tournament, after the latter put in an impressive display to oust Scotland’s Rhys Clark 4-2. The rising star only made one break over 50 – a 65 in the final frame – and he will have to significantly improve his game in order to get the best of O’Sullivan in round three on Thursday afternoon. Yong is the huge outsider at 6/1 to pick up what would be his biggest career win so far while his opponent, searching for his first English Open title, is the firm 1/12 favourite.
Elsewhere, there was a huge shock as China’s Ding Junhui, who is 8/1 to win the 2018 World Championship, was knocked out 4-2 by Welshman Michael White. White raced into a 3-0 lead before being pegged back to 3-2, but the 26-year-old made a brilliant 95 break in the sixth frame to record a surprise victory.
Dafabet English Open odds available at Dafabet.