O'Sullivan finds an extra gear

A philosophical Ronnie O’Sullivan continued to make progress in the Welsh Open at Newport this afternoon.

Yesterday O’Sullivan day chose to wear a towel on his head between shots and looked decidedly on edge in beating Ian McCulloch 5-2.

But there were no such antics on the way to a 5-3 win over Anthony Hamilton which earned the unpredictable defending champion a place in the quarter-finals.

This time O’Sullivan refused to allow frustration to get the better of him and pressed the turbo charge button ashe pulled away from 3-3 with superb breaks of 133 and 126 to beat Hamilton for the seventh time in eight attempts.

The 29-year-old, who will play either John Higgins or Australia’s Neil Robertson next, said: “I just found an extra gear from somewhere at the end.

“At 2-2 I had a feeling it was mine to lose so I went for the throat and finished it off.”

O’Sullivan described his performance as “battling” but refused to explain why he had jettisoned the towel.

He explained: “I know what I want to do – and there’s no point giving my secrets away.”

Instead O’Sullivan talked at length about the “inner strength,” he believes carried him through the match and has transported him to the top of his chosen sport.

The twice world champion claimed: “I’m quite a wise man and I know what I have to do.

“I’m a strong character, I’m not a choker – I’m a winner. I have what makes champions.”

O’Sullivan claims he is striving to find “that little something extra” and insisted sports psychologists are not the answer.

He added: “There’s no point looking for an edge because I’ve had it inside me all along.

“It doesn’t matter what you do. You won’t make Michael Holt [a middle ranked professional] into Stephen Hendry. NASA could put a chip in his head and it wouldn’t make the slightest difference.

“I’ve got character strength and that’s the difference. It’s inherited from my parents and I’d like to think I’d have been a champion whatever sport I’d taken up.

“Without really performing I’ve won two of the last four ranking events but I’m a perfectionist so it’s a matter of controlling that monster.”

With regards to the towel, Hamilton said: “It fazes you when Ronnie’s not doing anything mad.

“He just wants a bit of attention I suppose even when he’s not playing. That’s probably why he’s a genius.”

Barry Hawkins, largely ignored on the other table, reached the third world ranking event quarter-final of his 11-year professional career and his second this season with a 5-2 victory over dour Scot Drew Henry.

The world number 43 from Sydenham in south London also figured in the last eight of the British Open in November.

Henry led 2-1 but, assisted by breaks of 67, 88 and a match-clinching run of 69, Hawkins reeled off the following four frames.

There was also a 5-1 win for Romford left-hander Mark King over 1991 world champion John Parrott – a repeat of November’s UK Championship quarter-final meeting between the two.

O’Sullivan was not the only player to fire in a pair of centuries as Stephen Hendry also produced a brace of tons during his mightily impressive 5-1 victory over fellow Scot Graeme Dott.

Hendry, three times a winner of the Welsh Open, has failed to go further than the quarter-finals of a ranking tournament so far this season.

But his form returned against Dott, one of his whipping boys – having now lost all seven of their encounters.

Hendry hardly missed a ball throughout the contest, firing in breaks of 62, 70, 119, 79 and – to finish – 125, as he set up a meeting with Hong Kong’s Marco Fu or Dubliner Ken Doherty.

The Scot said afterwards: “I know I’ve got a good record against Graeme but that doesn’t mean a lot.

“Fortunately I played superbly. I don’t think anyone would’ve beaten me.

“It was one of those days when everything clicked into place.”