'Real' Rocket thanks Reardon for lift-off

Ronnie O’Sullivan tonight won through to the British Masters quarter-finals – and then revealed he has renewed his world championship-winning partnership with Ray Reardon.

World number one O’Sullivan played in Newport and Malta without calling upon the advice and wisdom of the 72-year-old Welsh great.

But after beating Scotsman Graeme Dott 6-3 at Wembley, the Rocket revealed six-times world champion Reardon is back in his corner.

With Dott threatening to repeat his recent Malta Cup victory over O’Sullivan at the mid-session interval, the Londoner called upon Reardon for help.

“He told me all the potential outcomes that could have happened, and I went out in a more positive frame of mind,” said O’Sullivan.

“I wouldn’t ask Ray to tournaments where I wasn’t 100% focused. But he’s here for this one and he’ll be at Sheffield for the world championship.

“It wasn’t the real Ronnie O’Sullivan in Malta, and I shouldn’t have gone. Even Stevie Wonder would have beaten me 5-0.”

That whitewash was only the seventh of his career and was some compensation for Dott’s world final defeat last May.

“No disrespect to Graeme, but it would have been a different match had I wanted to be out there.”

Dott, whose first round win over UK champion Stephen Maguire was his first in three attempts at Wembley, recovered from 2-0 down to share the first six frames.

But from 3-3, O’Sullivan cut loose with breaks of 72, 85 and 51 to go with his earlier efforts of 64, 130 and 63.

He now faces a first ever meeting with 17-year-old Chinese sensation Ding Junhui for a place in the semi-finals.

“I have played a lot of unknown quantities before,” said O’Sullivan.

“I’m going to be favourite, and everyone expects me to do the business. But that won’t faze me.

“Friday is just another game, and I’m pleased to still be in the tournament.”

Dott reckons Ding has a chance – “depending on which Ronnie turns up”.

On his own performance today, the Scot added: “I struggled throughout the match – but when I got him under a bit of pressure at 3-3 he did miss a few.

“In the end, though, I wasn’t good enough. My touch and my safety wasn’t there.”