Master vs Disciple | Ronnie O'Sullivan vs Zhao Xintong | 2022 Champion of Champions QF

but based on their performances this afternoon you have to make Ronny O'Sullivan a big favourite thank you settle down now please the first frame Ronny O'Sullivan to break but Neil Fowles in terms of being an attractive contest it's guaranteed yeah guaranteed to be a good match both with such exciting style of play the UK champion Jiaxin Tong looking forward to watching him again safe to say that we felt a different pair of players but yesterday we felt that Judd Trump would have to improve on his first win to beat Mark Allen at night and goodness me didn't he do that so we started fresh tonight he'll need to play better to beat Ronny O'Sullivan I think one when he got the pace of the table very quickly this afternoon other players had struggled initially with the bed which is responsive and fairly quick didn't stop him this afternoon though despite that slight limp well for once the positional play has not worked the red to the left of the black he wanted to obviously land on there but he's finished just short 14 so the break ends prematurely Ronny O'Sullivan 14 slightly awkward carrying with the green underneath his eyeline there this long red there was a time when he didn't miss anything like that but I haven't seen it in the last few months that he's been as dangerous at long range as he was yeah Xiao made a really good start of the season in the championship league since then well his season hasn't really taken off he did play one brilliant match though against Stuart Bingham at the British Open it's very hard to gain a significant advantage unless you get right in behind the black which is the reds are so widely spread it's hard to do that pot would have been a bonus because it wouldn't have been an easy to pot one but that's all right that is tight on the rail these two it's been six years since they've played so it's hard to to gauge what it's like for Xiao Xintong to play O'Sullivan we're going to find out though Xiao really has missed an awful lot of balls today one six seven as Neil was saying when they only played that one previous match in the English Open very different circumstances Xiao actually was a rookie professional he turned some heads made a couple of centuries in an 80 was 3-2 in front lost 4-3 entirely different circumstances O'Sullivan world champion on snooker's top table himself 26 27 yes he can get himself close to getting the frame one with the 31 relatively open spaces where the rest of the reds are 32 but it would be very hard anyway for a counter-attack it's all plenty of points on the table seven reds left 83 points but to take blacks with all these reds it's pretty far-fetched very big lead but not an unassailable one make bigger of course O'Sullivan in the 30s one we've come to expect from Xiao just a bit unlucky because he's coming close to the black on that shot and you haven't got much margin for error to land on it so this is tougher playing the pink you could see straight away he hit that delightfully and a chance to move a couple of the reds the reds on the right cushion here will be his target and potting this red try and shift them bring them into play oh dear shouting it's a pretty poor effort to be honest didn't get any part of the shot didn't seem to take a lot of time just studying it either didn't know what to play there he must have looked about four or five different options and the one he did play giving O'Sullivan a chance they've been going along the cushion pretty well if you wanted to play on the low red here if you're right behind it and you're dropping it in yes they can be missed but if you do hit them right they're going to be swallowed up by the pocket so he won't play it with a huge amount of pace he's checked the scores he knows he's the one he needs never going to be an issue was it 23 24 the story of this frame several pots missed by Zhao nothing missed by O'Sullivan at all 31 32 37 37 you know he needs to spark your life otherwise this could be a very short evening they have to be eliminated quickly please thank you well it's a good way to on a safety shot there from Zintong not likely to trouble O'Sullivan with the top red though just thinking about Zintong it's a very important stage of the season coming up this will be defending that uk championship crown later in this month big stage of the season good time to be playing your best snooker and getting your long game back played a good shot there which has been his most potent force got close to the red initially and then after that there's a lot went on 9 15 seems that the break's come to an end now we're back with the exchange in safety which from your son i have to be honest he's not an aspect of i've ever thought he's the strongest yes you've got to learn there was a kick there was a huge kick i mean we don't see it very often but there was one where it's very hard to hit those shots as thin as required when you use extra pace that's what he did there potentially a lot of damage one it's not one of Ronnie's better shots pink goes i think to the left corner pretty comfortably but the cue ball is drifting up the table from it seven eight thought ryan evans made a very good point in the studio this afternoon that in his first match against milkins while he wasn't potting many from distance his middle distance game was mustard 12 13 17 got an issue with high value colors here 18 why he's having to think about this quite as much as he is the red to the right if you clear that the black would be available i think that might be initially the ready played on 20 on that one in front of it things are starting to open up but as you can see the black is covered by the red closest to the pocket 24 played that well you know to finish top side of the blue there made it look very simple shot and it wasn't really there is on that red now everything is free this is where Sullivan is so good occasionally these shots gets on the key reds early in a break and then it becomes easy after that because he's done all the hard work 36 it's not just execution it's also the visualization 37 greedy there didn't he saw that it was very virtually straight and he tried to find that angle just to take the cube around but the angle wasn't really there one so in as in the previous frame has been thrown a lifeline he made nothing of it in frame one yes the balls were awkward when he came to the table in the first a little more friendly here well that is not a bad result he's had six has easily gone wrong seven now what does he do here i mean three reds need to be going to play oh he's had another kick he's had two horrendous things on those days were gone phil it's nothing worse than sitting here in the comms box and talking about kicks it's pretty boring but that was a horrific one the introduction of the town chalk which is manufactured in finland has largely eradicated kicks but of course not all players use the town chalk that is incredibly frustrating because the whole shot changed as soon as he got the kick everything about it changed one he was well held for the pink seven eight 15 16 now neil the insurance policy could be shredded well the problem is you just got to make sure it doesn't push the red beyond the pocket well no he's hit the wrong side of it 22 and the poor shot priority is always to get the object ball safe there i'm not saying it's easy one yeah beautiful eight ten this afternoon in every frame he won he made a sizable break 13 no breaks yet from but a very agreeable start nevertheless 22 28 in the frame otherwise as sure as eggs is eggs and on one occasion he didn't play that's how good he's been in this tournament consistently over the years one this is what i'm saying about us so he's now looking at ways of getting that black free does go into the right corner as we saw but the reds surrounding it they all need to move 12 13 free the black spot 20 you're almost in the blink of an eye people say well he makes the game look easy but he does as i say play a lot of very telling shots early on in breaks 28 29 36 37 40 50 it's got to play just up the table a bit from it though pink slots through to the same pocket 56 57 shot to finish perfectly behind the blue now what's the shot here he couldn't nudge the reds you feel there's not a single ready can play on not so much a nudge more drive into the reds and look at where they all finished 63 so frame ball up to six and a half minutes play it really is dominant 70 71 78 79 two or three shots early on when he didn't quite get hold of the white as he wanted to and yet he recovered delightfully 87 94 95 and then for the century the cue ball is coming all around the angles here between the yellow and brown 103 you're right though phil it's been a particularly good break a few reds that might have caused him bother but 113 all the groundwork and now the cue is really flowing through the ball 170 yard of break building and quite frankly there's never been a player better at it than this man 1179 centuries in pro competition 128 must get a foothold by winning this frame surely one close to the ball that he's playing on so if you get the pace dead right one good shot there quite simply xiao has to make his presence felt and the wide safety shot one it was a fluke only one-sided this match i don't quite know how things are going to change of course they always can in snooker we know that but right now i'm not seeing it i'm not has got to throw back at osullivan if the long pots aren't going in his safety has been okay but it's not his strength it's very hard playing this man don't get me wrong i'm not saying he should just turn it on like a tap but at the moment it's all one way that's that's okay isn't it goodness me playing brilliantly you say but as well as he played against rob milkens he had a bit the rub of the green and i think it's safe to say that's also happening here pink's responded and uh ronny can ask for it to be replaced on there because he thought the red would go not sure how many times you can ask for it to be checked quite honestly but there you are sometimes it may just roll into a little hole perhaps well i just checked the line and i'm happy you get a bus through there now anyway i'm happy that's what it was like before double decker 19 25 26 this afternoon against milkens as sullivan made one beautiful break consisting almost exclusively of pinks and this is an action replay yeah played a good shot on that red previously to screw on the pink into the middle when it comes to scoring you know we know what he's like around the black spot but even when the black is tied up it doesn't really stop him not much does quite honestly 39 40 another shot breakfast right what a disparity 46 now no that's been a good break because as i say it's not been a typical sullivan contribution really the key was been 53 running a little loose he's managed to engineer a way of keeping it going he needs a couple more to go into the this is frame ball and how about that well that tells you where his game is at right now and he's not going to give anything so that is that is a proper match play shot it's all there a good follow-up shot and credit one first ball is potted for 22 minutes in the mean in that meantime now i wonder if he can just pop this and screw onto the red by the black he can't win this frame with that red there to the right of the black it's got to be shifted and there might be an opportunity 14 this is also tough can't get the cue ball away from the cushion very much oh no no no no that was never anywhere near 14 one of those that you knew immediately had gone horribly wrong it's a touch of side to coax the red in that was frame ball the blue was frame ball plus one and it's going to be four nil yeah and it doesn't flatter him at all you know this is watching the world champion against the uk champion but it's a complete no race so far the match is not over yet but if they carried on now i think it would be soon 15 minutes has got to make a lot of difference to jow's in tong of the match the rocket they're delighting his legion of fans he leads four nil jazzing tongs highest break just 22 pot success 62 all the stats all of them need to go up and they need to go up soon really in this one we have seen before intervals can shake matches up remains to be seen whether that will be the case at all five good pot unlucky charging yeah that's well i'm gonna say that's about a two or three out of ten that red that he just attempted but the very fact that he couldn't avoid leaving a sitter of a red for his opponent there's a little bit of give up in that shot i must confess oh boy what a shot that is six seven and by all means take this shot on if it's the only red you can leave as i say he was he was always going to leave a sitter oh that's for once ronnie losing his but an outstanding recovery well controlled what we saw playing really well 31 30 well grab on to whatever's thrown his way this was i guess a surprise miss but now can he make the most of the chance that has been thrown his way 1 8 9 14 15 20 21 28 29 so this 29 break is his highest of the night so far 30 for those two reds how does he go about bringing those into the game i have a plan in his mind already 34 playing a cannon right now on the two reds yeah i think he had the angle to play it but the sort of poor positional shot on this loose one means that he's compromised as far as getting nicely on the next color 42 that was very good that's quite a nice cannon to play i yeah good shot so he's got them where he wants them develops these reds of sullivan mr red using the rest jazzing tong has the rest out here looking to first things first avoid the whitewash tonight 50 stay nice and composed concentrated red color he's got a frame in the board 58 he can certainly apply pressure but it starts here by punishing an error which he's not done all night he's now done it in this frame 65 as i say averted the whitewash 67 70 70 79 key thing about this break is how it began as sullivan was in looking good for five mil mr red using the rest he needs more of the same now he is to make a match of this but that's a good start in his first frame of the night so ronnie s sullivan's lead is reduced to 4-1 tomorrow night's first semi-final he's jud trump against mark selby that's where he's got to be a bit tighter he can't believe in this right hand wing ball come on guys have fun but please behave yeah so i'm cold out just before he played the shot one first real opportunity holds the jowl any top player worth their salt can about to say you know he could chance it may be stringing two three four even you know frames together but it's just the odd laps today similar to his match against mink earlier eight nine 16 17 24 25 32 33 40 41 46 47 okay so not perfect but this would would expect be the last impediment if there was to be one as far as winning this frame 54 55 63 so we arrived at prime ball just four minutes into the break 71 that could be it and it's going to be 5-1 77 78 85 86 94 94 for century number two of the night and it stayed out again trying leading 5-1 yes eight nine shall change on nine yeah the black in addition to the difficult red where there is just asking a wee bit too much and uh it's all systems go as far as attacking the game is concerned but ronnie gladly stepping in and as david said five one every shot potentially could be your last so said earlier about you know layers to any top players game there is one and there's another you know there's a lot of them another one 16 they get in just hanging in there for a couple of frames and 17 until something better comes along yeah it's a smart play because he the green was in the way going around three cushions like that always guaranteed on something 23 worst thing possible really to land boy this will take some queuing to get in and out of bulk delivered in for the kill 27 some of the events with 128 players and lots of matches going on where the atmosphere can be a little flat early doors but here one table full house in bolton he's turned it on 34 normally 39 a theory ronnie that he likes to punch shots see that's a natural for the black but he likes to be punchy like that 40 it's a confidence thing you feel positive playing that short rather than going top spin almost guiding the red and it's kind of his way there it is again you see low in the cube all punchy through it 45 and again 53 54 well jazzing tongue didn't put enough pressure on early on monia sullivan played very very well tonight and this is effectively replacing the semi-finals still a lot of work to do if he's to win the tournament of course fang zhengjie who shocked him in that european final is next then it's either judge trump or mark selby but there's something about this event that clearly appeals to ronnie o'sullivan three times the winner 77 84 85 i'm going to see when he pots the next green i've never seen i've been watching his his right arm through impact all night and i've never seen it as relaxed his right arm just glides through impact see all the way through and down just after impact he drops his his arm you see it again here see it dropping down and staying with the short 108 ronnie o'sullivan has beaten jazzing tongue six one