Ronnie O’Sullivan had a dodgy cushion to thank for avoiding a third successive opening round defeat at York in the Maplin UK Championship today.
The Rocket looked set to lose 9-7 to Ricky Walden but the world no.36 got a bad bounce off a side cushion leading 56-0 in the next frame.
O’Sullivan won the frame on the black and finished off with a 108 to win 9-8 – but admitted he had been lucky.
He said: “Ricky played a good brown, hit it right, but I looked at the cue ball and it came off the cushion at three times the speed it should have done,
“I knew he was out of position. I’m disappointed for him. I told him it was only a cushion that had cost him and that he deserved to win.
“It’s one of the worst tables I’ve played on. A bad table got me through to the next round, which isn’t the way you want to win.”
O'Sullivan was beaten 9-6 by Stephen Maguire in 2004 and 9-8 by Mark King at the same stage last year.
2 comments:
Cheers for the news on the 146s'
Going by O'Sullivan's post match press quotes it seems Walden was really unfortunate. Did you watch the match? If so, is it just this table or are all the cushions playing this way?
Well, it goes down to two tables after today (or is it 4?), so there probably won't be that many problems, eh?
If am correct, O'Sullivan's next opponent is none other than his 2004 bete noire - Maguire. Should be a brilliant match.
Thanks, Joe
From the Guardian: Premiership clubs could be forced to terminate lucrative sponsorship deals with gaming companies after the government announced it is to examine whether shirt sponsorships and other endorsements involving gambling operators are illegal.
Will this affect Snooker?
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