O'Sullivan keeps his head

Defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan played down the early concession of a frame as he crashed out of the UK Championship.

The three-times world champion lost 9-5 to Joe Perry in Telford, despite starting the day with a 5-3 advantage.

After losing three frames in a row, the 33-year-old seemed to have lost all interest, and conceded the next frame at only 23-0 down to go 7-5 behind.

The incident brought back memories of two years ago, when O’Sullivan conceded another best-of-17-frame UK Championship match.

In the quarter-final of his York clash against Stephen Hendry, he shook hands with the Scot while trailing 4-1 – and left the building immediately.

Perry took full advantage of whatever was affecting O’Sullivan – and quickly wrapped up victory by taking the final two frames to give himself a clean sweep of all six today.

And after yesterday’s disappointing exit, O’Sullivan was keen to praise the performance of Perry, rather than question his own display.

The 33-year-old world champion told BBC2: “He played great – I wasn’t going to win today.

“His safety was great, he scored when he got in and didn’t miss much.

“I didn’t have any tip issues, I just got outplayed on the day. Sometimes you’ve just got to hold your hands up.

“It might have looked like I lost my head but I’m sure I’ll bounce back - you’ve just got to roll with it sometimes.”