Ronnie O'Sullivan eases past Ryan Day to reach quarter-finals of World Snooker Championship at The Crucible in Sheffield; Seven-time champion to play winner of the match between Jack Lisowski or Stuart Bingham
Monday 29 April 2024 21:37, UK
Ronnie O'Sullivan continued his pursuit for a record eighth World Snooker Championship title with a comfortable 13-7 victory over Ryan Day at The Crucible.
O'Sullivan - aiming to become just the fourth man, after Stephen Hendry, Steve Davis and Mark Williams, to win The Masters, UK Championship and World Championship in the same season - led Page 10-6 overnight and wrapped up victory on Monday afternoon.
The 48-year-old will play the winner of the match between left-hander Jack Lisowski or 2015 champion Stuart Bingham in the last eight.
O'Sullivan built on a 5-3 first-session lead by making Day pay for a succession of missed chances.
A missed yellow from Day proved costly as O'Sullivan made an 82 clearance and, although the Welshman replied by winning a scruffy frame, the seven-time world champion did not have to get out of second gear to dominate.
'The Rocket' reached the break 8-4 ahead as Day's carelessness was further punished with breaks of 65 and 89.
The pattern remained the same after the interval as O'Sullivan cashed in on Day mistakes with frame-winning breaks of 56 and 96.
But Day - who has not beaten O'Sullivan since 2011 - responded superbly with efforts of 77 and 75.
His chances to reduce his deficit to three frames ended with a double kiss with ruthless O'Sullivan clearing up before a break of 85 saw him move one frame away from notching another victory on the Crucible stage.
World No 18 Day stayed in the match by claiming his first frame of the day thanks to breaks of 37 and 41, but O'Sullivan got the job done with a break of 53.
"Early days for me, trying this new way of playing, different style of cueing, just to get away from the 'yips' as I call it, the easiest way of explaining it," O'Sullivan told BBC Sport.
"It's been hard work for two years and I decided I couldn't continue playing like that so I had to make some changes so it's the body and mind trying to catch up with each other. I've got some of it right, it's just the other pieces need to fall in - I'm trying to work out the puzzle.
"It feels like I want to play, I want to get my cue out of the case. I'm not scared of the table, I'm not scared of the balls. I'm scared of some other things but not that, which is the most important thing.
"When you're confident in your ability to do something given the chance, you feel all right.
"For me it's more about longevity - how long can I play for? Snooker events are not everything for me. I play enough but there's a bigger picture with how I like spending my time, being away, travelling.
"I'm at a different stage of my career to most players on the Tour so it's just about enjoying places I go and playing and trying to find that - at my age it's easy to say I could stay at home and walk the dogs, watch a bit of TV, go to the gym and go on shopping trips. So I have to find other ways to motivate myself."
O'Sullivan added: "I've had such a long time in the doldrums, two years I've not really mentioned anything but it's been really challenging, I've even had to take medicine for the anxiety, even in small tournaments and even when I'm not playing.
"That's how bad the game can make me feel at times. I didn't want to do that any more and I've just had a bit of excitement the last few weeks, feeling like I can get through the ball a bit better, but then you come crashing down to earth - I was out there last night and it was starting to wander a bit.
"So it's like can we fix it? Can we get back on track? And there were some good bits out there today so I'm getting a little bit more optimism and belief that I can sustain it. It's no good doing it for one match or the odd tournament, you've got to try to be able to sustain it for a few months, even a year. I played great for three years once, never had a bad day, so it can happen, you just have to get everything right."
Kyren Wilson stormed into the next round with a 13-6 victory over Joe O'Connor.
Wilson also took a 10-6 lead into the final session of his second-round match and won a scrappy first frame to move within two of the quarter-finals.
Another long frame followed as O'Connor looked to peg his opponent back, but there was nothing he could do to stop Wilson from going 12-6 in front.
Wilson got over the line in the next frame to clinch a straightforward win.
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