Ronnie O'Sullivan has continued his good run of form to breeze into the quarter-finals of the Northern Ireland Open after two comfortable wins on day four in Belfast.
First in the afternoon's last 32 action he whitewashed Tom Ford with breaks of 51, 62 and 79 though Ford had his chances in that contest and O'Sullivan was not at his complete best. That set up a last 16 tie in the evening with Zhou Yuelong, who had beaten Michael Holt on a re-spotted black in the deciding frame of their last 32 encounter.
Zhou started well by taking the opening frame but would only score another two points in the next three frames as O'Sullivan hit top form. A run of 83 in the second frame was followed by an excellent 132 in the fourth to put him 3-1 ahead. Zhou had chances in the fifth to extend the match, but O'Sullivan won the match after an extremely brave and well-executed pot on the black into the right middle pocket.
Also through to the last eight is the world number one Mark Selby. The Englishman was an easy 4-0 winner in the last 32 against Pakistan's Hamza Akbar who offered little resistance to Selby's strong form. Selby opened up with a break of 86 before making his first century of the match, a 101, in frame two. Akbar had a decent chance in the third but a break of 67 from Selby put him within one of a victory that he would soon seal courtesy of an excellent 122 break.
That put him into a last 16 tie with Martin O'Donnell who was looking for his third quarter-final of the season. O'Donnell came from snookers required to win the first frame on a re-spotted black, though Selby took the next three frames to move 3-1 ahead with contributions of 63, 66 and 81. O'Donnell kept himself in the tie by winning the fifth frame but a closing run of 57 from Selby ensured his place in the quarter-finals.
There were two big name casualties on the day as Neil Robertson and Ali Carter bowed out. Robertson was unable to curb his trait of slow starts and failed to recover on this occasion, falling 4-0 in the last 32 to Li Hang who would ultimately then lose 4-1 to Peter Ebdon, who also overcame English Open runner-up Mark Davis 4-1 in the last 32 on the way to booking his quarter-final place.
Ebdon will now play Eden Sharav who backed up his 4-2 win over Joe Swail, a win that ended the hopes of the final home player left in the tournament, by defeating Ali Carter in a deciding frame. Carter had beaten Xiao Guodong in the last 32 and looked set for a spot in the quarters when he took a 3-1 lead on Sharav. The sixth frame proved a big blow for Carter after he opened up with a break of 56, before Sharav cleared with 67 to force the decider which he would end up winning comfortably.
Judd Trump saw off two strong names to book his place in the quarter-finals on Friday. Trump opened the day with a whitewash win over his good friend Jack Lisowski who was unable to bring the sort of form that took him to the semi-finals of the recent International Championship, while Trump had high breaks of 57 and 112 in the contest.
He got a much greater fight from Belgium's Luca Brecel, but ultimately the former China Championship winner was unable to reach his first ranking event quarter-final of 2018. Trump opened with a break of 71 but was soon 2-1 down after Brecel cleared to win the second on the black and followed that with a fine 82 in the third. From there though, Brecel would fail to trouble the scorers as Trump registered 316 unanswered points including a break of 115 as well as two 51 breaks to clinch a 4-2 win.
Trump will now face Ryan Day, the man who put him out of the English Open at the last 16 stage. Day was very fortunate to overcome Robin Hull in the last 32 on Thursday morning. Hull won each of the first, third and fifth frames to ensure Day would not lead at any stage until winning the deciding frame. After missing a simple red on virtually match ball, Day left Hull the chance to clear but he snookered himself on the final red which would end up costing him the match. Things were much more comfortable in the evening as the Welshman whitewashed Andrew Higginson compiling breaks of 62, 63, 69 and 73 in the process.
The final two quarter-finalists are Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, who lost just one frame from his matches against Chris Totten and Robbie Williams, making breaks of 65, 74 and a high break tying 145 against Totten, before a sublime spell of form against Williams that included breaks of 138, 104, 99 and 65 in a match that lasted just 37 minutes. David Gilbert is the other after defeating Matthew Stevens 4-2 in the last 32 prior to a 4-0 whitewash of Lu Ning.
Last 32 results:
Ali Carter 4-2 Xiao Guodong
Eden Sharav 4-2 Joe Swail
Li Hang 4-0 Neil Robertson
Peter Ebdon 4-1 Mark Davis
Judd Trump 4-0 Jack Lisowski
Luca Brecel 4-2 Gary Wilson
Ryan Day 4-3 Robin Hull
Andrew Higginson 4-2 Billy Castle
Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-0 Tom Ford
Zhou Yuelong 4-3 Michael Holt
Lu Ning 4-2 Hammad Miah
David Gilbert 4-2 Matthew Stevens
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4-1 Chris Totten
Robbie Williams 4-1 Sanderson Lam
Martin O'Donnell 4-1 Scott Donaldson
Mark Selby 4-0 Hamza Akbar
Last 16 results:
Eden Sharav 4-3 Ali Carter
Peter Ebdon 4-1 Li Hang
Judd Trump 4-2 Luca Brecel
Ryan Day 4-0 Andrew Higginson
Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-1 Zhou Yuelong
David Gilbert 4-0 Lu Ning
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4-0 Robbie Williams
Mark Selby 4-2 Martin O'Donnell
Quarter-Final draw: (Picks in bold)
Peter Ebdon Vs Eden Sharav
Judd Trump Vs Ryan Day
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs David Gilbert
Mark Selby Vs Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
The first quarter-final on Friday will be that of Mark Selby against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in what should be a great match. Selby looks to have really hit his stride this week with some high scoring and pretty comfortable victories. So far he has beaten Anthony Hamilton, Jimmy Robertson, Hamza Akbar and Martin O'Donnell for the loss of just three frames and he's cueing so sweetly that the possibility of a Selby Vs O'Sullivan semi-final is of great appeal. Thepchiaya will have something to say about that though. The Thai has only lost one frame all week in victories over Robert Milkins, Ross Muir, Chris Totten and Robbie Williams. He has the joint high break of 145, and won a match in 37 minutes with two further centuries and a break of 99 included in there. He showed some signs of this form in the English Open with a maximum break early in the week before losing a tight last 32 clash against Stuart Bingham and I expect him to give Selby as tight a game in this one.
Next up will be Judd Trump and Ryan Day. These two met recently at the English Open and Day was in sublime form in winning that one but would go on to lose in the quarter-finals, just as he had done at the European Masters, so he will be looking to put those defeats behind him and march on here. Day has survived two massive scares this week, coming from behind to beat Zhang Anda in the last 64 and getting a huge slice of luck against Robin Hull to win that one in a decider. Trump meanwhile has had some tough opponents but has still only dropped four frames in his four matches and looks to have been inspired by some of the comments made about him after his loss to Kyren Wilson in the Champion of Champions. It is tough to say that someone who has won as much as Trump already has, has something to prove, but comparisons between him and Wilson have been made and comments in his one of his post-match interviews this week would lead you to believe that he thinks he is miles better than Wilson and he is determined to show that in Belfast.
Then in the evening, Ronnie O'Sullivan will face his toughest match of the week so far against David Gilbert. O'Sullivan has had a simple passage to the quarter-finals this week, losing just two frames in his matches against Soheil Vahedi, Mei Xiwen, Tom Ford and Zhou Yuelong and at times he has not even been that close to his best. That should have helped him to conserve a bit of energy ahead of the final push this weekend, having just won the Champion of Champions in Coventry. Gilbert meanwhile has overcome Fergal O'Brien, Chen Zifan, Matthew Stevens and Lu Ning as he looks to force himself into contention for a Masters spot. There would be no better way of signalling his Masters credentials by beating O'Sullivan and it is worth remembering that Gilbert pushed him hard at the Crucible in 2016, though he has never beaten the Rocket thus far in his career. After his run to the World Open final he should have more confidence to make a win here possible, but O'Sullivan still has a couple of unused gears that he could move up into if Gilbert starts to push him.
The final quarter-final, that will be played on table two in the evening and broadcast solely on the Eurosport Player, features Eden Sharav and Peter Ebdon. This will be the first meeting between these two players and the first ranking quarter-final in Sharav's career so a big day lies ahead for him. Ebdon meanwhile is showing similar form to the Paul Hunter Classic at the end of August where he reached the final. Sharav is in good form too and was only denied by O'Sullivan at the last 16 stage of the English Open and has beaten the likes of Carter and Michael White this week as well as defeating Stuart Bingham in the International Championship. Ebdon though has scored really well this week also and has defeated Lee Walker (who overcame Kyren Wilson), English Open runner-up Mark Davis and Li Hang (who had whitewashed Neil Robertson earlier in the day). It is great to see him still challenging at the latter stages of competitions at the age of 48 and this extra bit of experience in the latter stages of tournaments could be a decisive factor, particularly if Sharav shows any early nerves.
All of the quarter-final matches will be played over the best-of-9 frames, with places in the best-of-11 semi-finals up for grabs.
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