O’Sullivan makes his mark on FU

RONNIE O’SULLIVAN avenged his most disappointing defeat of 2003 by beating Marco Fu 5-1 to reach the second round of the £400,000 European Open at the Hilton Conference Centre in Malta yesterday.

O’Sullivan was beaten by Fu in the first round of the Embassy World Championship 11 months ago despite recording a second Crucible 147.

O’Sullivan opened the contest with a break of 110 and played solidly to carve out victory with Fu mustering only one break of more than 40.

O’Sullivan, the world number three, is defending the European title after beating Stephen Hendry 9-6 in the 2003 final at Torquay.

The 28-year-old has reached the semi-finals at least in the last four tournaments, winning the Welsh Open and finishing runner-up in the Masters and the British Open. He now faces Edinburgh’s Chris Small for a place in the quarter-finals after the 2002 LG Cup winner defeated reigning UK champion Matthew Stevens 5-0.

Small, who suffers from degenerative disease of the spine, needed a steroid injection just to make the trip, but produced a dogged performance to cause the first shock of the tournament.

Joe Perry recovered from 3-1 down to beat Derby’s David Roe 5-3.

Steve Davis survived a nail-biting finish to shake off Joe Swail and reach the second round.

Stephen Maguire caused a surprise by recovering from 3-1 down to beat 2002 world champion Peter Ebdon 5-4.