Rocket crashes out of China

Ronnie O’Sullivan’s dismal season suffered another setback when he was whitewashed 5-0 by Thailand’s James Wattana in the first round of the Star Group China Open in Beijing today.

O’Sullivan headed to China having gone five months without winning a match in a ranking tournament.

And he was outplayed by Wattana, who produced his best performance for years to send the world number one crashing out.

“I didn’t expect that,” said Wattana, whose confidence was high after qualifying for the final stages of the 888.com World Championship last week.

“I thought I could beat him, but not 5-0. It just shows you that at this standard anything can happen if you play well.

“I don’t think Ronnie was in the right frame of mind and that gave me an advantage.

“It didn’t look like his concentration was there. He seemed a bit lost.”

O’Sullivan reached the Grand Prix final last October but was beaten in the first round of the UK Championship and Welsh Open.

He did not enter the Malta Cup, which fell between these two tournaments, although he did reach the final of the Wembley Masters in January, which does not carry ranking points.

O’Sullivan lost 5-1 to Ian McCulloch at the Welsh Open three weeks ago when his right wrist was strapped following an injury sustained while boxing in the gym.

It is not known whether the wrist is still causing him pain or to what extent he has been able to practice before the Beijing event.

His defeat to Wattana means he will probably have to win next month’s World Championship to keep his number one ranking for another season.

O’Sullivan did not attend his mandatory post-match press conference but gave an interview to CCTV, the host broadcasters.

He said: “Ranking tournaments are very important because I don’t want to give up the number one spot but it looks like it’s gone now.

“I’m very disappointed to have come here and lost. I enjoy coming here and wanted to stick around longer but I couldn’t make a 20 break. I’ll take nothing away from James because he played really well.”

World number 12 Alan McManus was beaten 5-2 by Stoke’s Jamie Cope, who missed the 15th red with a chance for a maximum in the fourth frame.

Cope admitted: “I was moving all over the place on the red.

“At the start of the match I couldn’t settle at all but I played all right at the end.”

World number three Stephen Maguire suffered a 5-3 defeat to Ricky Walden, who reached the quarter-finals in Beijing last year.