O'Sullivan Eases Through Despite Long-pot Worries
Ronnie O'Sullivan made a successful start to his defence of the world snooker championship despite cue problems for long pots
Ronnie O'Sullivan's 10–5 opening-day defeat of Stuart Bingham in the world championship, featuring a total clearance of 140, two more centuries, two 90s and four more breaks over 60, still gave the defending champion legitimate cause for concern.
Once he is in around the pink and black, O'Sullivan's touch, control and shot selection tends to make the game look absurdly easy, but the long pots that can be needed to initiate such contributions have been failing more frequently than he would wish.
"I was missing the long ones badly," said O'Sullivan, who has likened such failures to a tennis player losing his serve. "When you start to do that, you beat yourself."
This may well be a legacy of breaking his cue in disillusionment with how the game was being run on the eve of January's Masters. To have gone on to win the tournament with an unfamiliar implement had the game's old hands shaking their heads in wonderment.
Yet the cue did not feel right and he has changed again but each cue behaves slightly differently on long pots and those requiring sidespin, and adjustment tends to take time. It is just as well for his chances of a fourth world title this year that the most fluent break-maker snooker has ever seen also has a superb safety and tactical game.
Bingham, who nipped Stephen Hendry's seventh title defence in the bud on the opening day nine years ago, briefly threatened, going from 2–0 down to the verge of 4–2 up before he missed a simple penultimate red. He also made 73 and 100 back to back from 3–7, but did not pot another ball as O'Sullivan imperiously finished him off with 94, 103 and 97.
Mark Allen, Northern Ireland's finest prospect since the days of Alex Higgins and Dennis Taylor, resumes this morning with a 7–2 lead over Martin Gould and seems certain to be O'Sullivan's next opponent with a quarter-final place at stake.
Perhaps partly because of the acrimonious end of his relationship with the women's world champion, Reanne Evans, and unresolved issues pertaining to their infant daughter, Allen has often seemed subdued this season, and on the run-in to Sheffield lost his opening match in both the Welsh and China Opens.
When he is in the mood, though, he can reel off frames in double-quick time and he did so yesterday at an average of 17 seconds per shot. Gould, twice English amateur champion, has still not made sufficient impact on the circuit to abandon his part-time job as a croupier but beat Matthew Stevens, twice runner-up here, to qualify.
But once he had lost a close fourth frame, his confidence drained away to zero. He went 45 minutes without potting a ball, and Allen, with a run of 129 as the highlight, was soon 7–1 up before the qualifier managed to win his last frame of the day on the black.
Ali Carter made sure of his place in the second round with victory over the qualifier Gerard Greene. Carter, the 29-year-old from Essex, has pledged to put his ambitions to become an airline pilot on hold for the next 10 years, which he believes will be the best of his snooker life. And after finishing runner-up at the Crucible last year, he believes going one better this time is a realistic target. Greene had beaten the former world champion Ken Doherty in the final round of qualifying but he came unstuck against Carter, contributing to his own downfall, and lost 10-5 after threatening to get back into the match.
The Northern Irishman had been 6-1 down at one stage in yesterday's opening session, but narrowed the gap to 6-4. But once he wasted a good chance to trim that to 6-5, Carter's victory became inevitable.
Once he is in around the pink and black, O'Sullivan's touch, control and shot selection tends to make the game look absurdly easy, but the long pots that can be needed to initiate such contributions have been failing more frequently than he would wish.
"I was missing the long ones badly," said O'Sullivan, who has likened such failures to a tennis player losing his serve. "When you start to do that, you beat yourself."
This may well be a legacy of breaking his cue in disillusionment with how the game was being run on the eve of January's Masters. To have gone on to win the tournament with an unfamiliar implement had the game's old hands shaking their heads in wonderment.
Yet the cue did not feel right and he has changed again but each cue behaves slightly differently on long pots and those requiring sidespin, and adjustment tends to take time. It is just as well for his chances of a fourth world title this year that the most fluent break-maker snooker has ever seen also has a superb safety and tactical game.
Bingham, who nipped Stephen Hendry's seventh title defence in the bud on the opening day nine years ago, briefly threatened, going from 2–0 down to the verge of 4–2 up before he missed a simple penultimate red. He also made 73 and 100 back to back from 3–7, but did not pot another ball as O'Sullivan imperiously finished him off with 94, 103 and 97.
Mark Allen, Northern Ireland's finest prospect since the days of Alex Higgins and Dennis Taylor, resumes this morning with a 7–2 lead over Martin Gould and seems certain to be O'Sullivan's next opponent with a quarter-final place at stake.
Perhaps partly because of the acrimonious end of his relationship with the women's world champion, Reanne Evans, and unresolved issues pertaining to their infant daughter, Allen has often seemed subdued this season, and on the run-in to Sheffield lost his opening match in both the Welsh and China Opens.
When he is in the mood, though, he can reel off frames in double-quick time and he did so yesterday at an average of 17 seconds per shot. Gould, twice English amateur champion, has still not made sufficient impact on the circuit to abandon his part-time job as a croupier but beat Matthew Stevens, twice runner-up here, to qualify.
But once he had lost a close fourth frame, his confidence drained away to zero. He went 45 minutes without potting a ball, and Allen, with a run of 129 as the highlight, was soon 7–1 up before the qualifier managed to win his last frame of the day on the black.
Ali Carter made sure of his place in the second round with victory over the qualifier Gerard Greene. Carter, the 29-year-old from Essex, has pledged to put his ambitions to become an airline pilot on hold for the next 10 years, which he believes will be the best of his snooker life. And after finishing runner-up at the Crucible last year, he believes going one better this time is a realistic target. Greene had beaten the former world champion Ken Doherty in the final round of qualifying but he came unstuck against Carter, contributing to his own downfall, and lost 10-5 after threatening to get back into the match.
The Northern Irishman had been 6-1 down at one stage in yesterday's opening session, but narrowed the gap to 6-4. But once he wasted a good chance to trim that to 6-5, Carter's victory became inevitable.
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