Rocket too powerful for Chuang

RONNIE O’SULLIVAN proved too strong for qualifier Liu Chuang at the World Championship in Sheffield yesterday — and then admitted he has struggled to cope with the furore surrounding lewd comments and sexual innuendos he made at a news conference in China.

And the 32-year-old has volunteered to withdraw from tournaments if anyone has been offended by his antics, following his loss to Marco Fu in the China Open in Beijing last month.

World Snooker boss Rodney Walker said O’Sullivan acted “unacceptably” and has referred the case to the game’s disciplinary committee.

Speaking after his 10-5 first-round victory over Chinese teenager Liu Chuang in the 888.com World Championship yesterday, O’Sullivan said: “I regret it happened and it’s been a great embarrassment to me personally.

“I would withdraw from events if anyone has been offended because that’s never been my position.

“It’s been really hard in the last three weeks to concentrate on my game and it still is, because I feel certain things which have been said are just not true.

“It’s always my intention to deliver the goods on the table but you have to be in the right frame of mind and I would have much rather have had this situation sorted out before coming to this event.

“If anyone has a problem, then I will quite happily take my punishment and walk away.”

Resuming against 17-year-old Liu with just a slender 5-4 lead, O’Sullivan won three of the afternoon’s first four frames to banish any danger of the biggest shock in the game’s history.

O’Sullivan was in a relaxed mood, playing several shots left-handed and then deliberately fouling on the last red with the 11th frame already secure by sprawling across the table with both feet off the floor.

Liu pulled a frame back but O’Sullivan took the 13th frame with a break of 65 and the next frame as well, despite breaking down on a break of 56 as he attempted an outrageous positional shot to keep alive his chance of a 147 maximum.

And the Rocket duly completed victory in the next, clearing up the last red and the colours to take the frame 70-59.

The final first round match was completed when Stephen Maguire cruised to a 10-3 victory over Anthony Hamilton.

Maguire resumed 8-1 ahead and, after Hamilton had reduced the gap to 8-3, had a great chance for a maximum 147 break in the 12th frame, missing a tough final red.

The Scot stormed out of the arena in frustration and joked: “I think I broke a tile in the toilet. My hand just slipped and I heard a crack and didn’t look back. I was just gutted with myself that I never went full out for position on the last red.

“I was scared if I got into the white too much I don’t even get a shot at the red because it only went in the green pocket. I just got none of the white and left myself a red I would have potted if it wasn’t for a maximum, but I just twitched.”

The second round was already under way with Peter Ebdon taking a 5-3 advantage over Mark King in their first session. King, who defeated last year’s beaten finalist Mark Selby in the first round, led three times but Ebdon took the last three frames in what was already shaping up to be a tight affair.

Defending champion John Higgins threatened to race away with his second-round clash against Wales' Ryan Day when he took the first four frames with breaks of 96, 53, 84 and 79. But Day then won three of the next four to trail just 5-3 going into today’s second session.