The Hindu : Sport / Billiards & Snooker : O' Sullivan stays on course

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 20, 2006

Sport

Sport - Billiards & Snooker

O' Sullivan stays on course

SHEFFIELD: Former double world snooker champion Ronnie O'Sullivan cruised into the second round of this year's event with an easy 10-4 win over Dave Harold at the Crucible Theatre here on Wednesday.

The 2001 and 2004 champion made two century breaks on his way to carving out a 7-2 lead on Tuesday and when play resumed, he extended his lead to 8-2 after Harold missed a black and then a break of 100 put him on the brink of victory.

Harold responded with a 94 and won the next but then an 88 break by the former champion sealed victory - his first since January.

"It's nice to get the first round out of the way," said the 30-year-old Englishman.

Keeping Asian hopes alive

Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Marco Fu kept the flag flying for the Asians as he beat Scotland's Alan McManus 10-3 to book his place in the second round.

Fu built on a 4-3 first session lead to walk off with the next six frames, helped along the way by a string of errors from the Scot.

"This looks a good scoreline on paper but there were some close frames," said Fu, who will now face Stephen Maguire.

"I started to play better after winning the first frame and the momentum went my way."

Fu, 28, is the only player from Asia left in the tournament following Thai trailblazer James Wattana's first round defeat against reigning champion Shaun Murphy.

Swail's scathing attack

Meanwhile, the authorities, already reeling from pre-tournament criticism that they'd mismanaged the game's professional calendar, came under renewed attack from Joe Swail who described the table at the Crucible as "an absolute" joke after his 10-5 first round defeat against last year's losing finalist Matthew Stevens.

"There's only one thing that sums up the match and that's the table," said 36-year-old Swail, a two-time World championship semifinalist.

"I've been a professional for 15 years and it's about time they got it sorted out. There was a `kick' every other shot and balls were rolling off into the middle pocket," the Northern Irishman added.

"The standard out there is high enough without having to worry about things like that and it's very frustrating.

"I'm absolutely disgusted with the table. When you're on a break and trying to win a frame the last thing you want to worry about is getting a `kick'. It's an absolute joke.

"People have looked at it but they can't find the answer and it's getting worse. It's very difficult to take in.

"I complained during the match and everyone knows I'm not usually one to complain. But we are playing for a living and it makes a fool of you sometimes."

Completed results:

Ronnie O'Sullivan bt Dave Harold 10-4 (113-14 (106 break), 87-40 (67), 80-14, 73-40, 139-0 (139), 86-12, 86-0 (70), 0-80, 61-69, 66-46, 100-0 (100), 6-94 (94), 62-76 (O'Sullivan 54) 93-0 (88)).

Matthew Stevens (Wal) bt Joe Swail (NIR) 10-5 (74-26 (54 break), 42-82 (82), 76-52, 106-0 (106), 69-18, 58-5, 40-56, 103-1 (103), 22-80 (80), 27-65, 51-79 (71), 120-14 (112), 54-49, 72-3, 72-64 (64 Swail)).

Marco Fu (HKG) bt Alan McManus (Sco) 10-3 (73-21, 67-46, 38-85, 109-5 (68), 22-132 (71), 2-63, 73-34, 57-56, 62-19, 68-32, 75-7, 75-1, 64-25). — AFP

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