Friday, 2 January 2009

O'Sullivan comesback to beat Liang

World number one Ronnie O'Sullivan recovered from a shaky start to beat Liang Wenbo 5-2 in the first round of the Royal London Watches Grand Prix.

After losing the opening two frames O'Sullivan won the next five and finished in style with a century break.

But the 32-year-old was not happy with his display in Glasgow.

"At 1-0 and 2-0 everyone must be thinking I wanted to go home. It was embarrassing, my shots were amazingly off target," said the Englishman.

"It got a little bit better, I hate losing, I'm stubborn. It still bothers me when I play like that - the thing that keeps me going is that I can play well occasionally."

Liang made the most of it as he raced into a 2-0 lead, but the world champion regained his composure and, after clawing one frame back, a 52 break in the fourth saw him draw level.

From there O'Sullivan never looked back and after the interval he edged into the lead with the help of another half-century.

After winning the sixth to lead 4-2 O'Sullivan signed off in style with a 103 to set up a last-16 meeting with Marco Fu in a repeat of last year's final, which Fu won 9-6.

In the afternoon's other match Ali Carter saw off the challenge of Dave Harold to win a close encounter 5-4.

In the next round, Carter will play John Parrott, who beat Mark King 5-3 in the evening session, while former world champion Shaun Murphy was beaten by Adrian Gunnell by the same scoreline.

Gunnell will face another ex-world champion, the legendary Steve Davis, in round two on Wednesday.

Source

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