Ebdon out to ground Rocket again

Defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan will be targeting revenge against Peter Ebdon in the quarter-finals of the SAGA Insurance Masters following their contrasting opening victories.

The Rocket suffered a painful defeat to Ebdon at last season’s World Championship, having led 8-2 at the Crucible only to go down 13-11 in the last-eight meeting.

Ebdon was widely criticised for what was deemed excessively slow play.

“There were one or two unkind things written about that, but I can’t say too much about it for legal reasons,” said Ebdon after his 6-4 win over Stuart Bingham, referring to an action he is currently pursuing against a British newspaper.

“Every game is different. I’m just looking forward to playing Ronnie again.

“He always gets tremendous support here, so it should be a good atmosphere.

“I’ve been working very hard this season, so it was nice to beat Stuart because he’s a good player.”