Ronnie O'Sullivan continues UK Championship defence with last 32 whitewash

Ronnie O'Sullivan put talk of his controversial 'breakaway tour' to one side on Monday to deliver a crushing whitewash against Zhou Yuelong and book his place in the last 16 of the UK Championship. 

Zhou did have chances early on but fell 3-0 adrift after breaks of 66 and 60 from O'Sullivan and then the Chinese youngster would only score a further nine points in the final three frames, as O'Sullivan wrapped the match up with breaks of 68, 69 and 89. 

O'Sullivan will now face Jack Lisowski as he won a crucial match in the battle for the Masters, 6-3 against Marco Fu. Had the result gone the other only £1,100 would have separated the pair meaning that a win for Fu over O'Sullivan would have put him above Lisowski, but now the left-hander is almost certain of his Ally Pally place. On the day he made breaks of 69 and 109 but also won three crucial close frames in order to defeat Fu. 

Two-time UK champion Neil Robertson again recovered from a slow start to defeat Graeme Dott in a deciding frame. After trailing 3-0 in the previous round before winning, Robertson fell behind 2-0 this time after breaks of 66 and 58 from Dott. Robertson levelled at 2-2 with breaks of 58 and 57 but was behind again after the break when Dott's run of 54 put him 3-2 up. Robertson was level again with a run of 86, only for Dott to wade back in with a match high break of 105 to move 4-3 ahead. Two frames on the spin for the Australian looked to be crucial as he went ahead for the first time at 5-4, though Dott would not give up and forced the decider after a break of 63. After an unlucky in-off early in the decider from Dott, Robertson piled on a break of 71 which proved enough to edge the contest. 

World champion Mark Williams ended up a comfortable 6-3 winner against Noppon Saengkham and he looks to have found his feet well in York. Noppon opened up with a match high break of 119 but then spent most of the next three frames glued to his chair. Breaks of 54, 72 and 112 helped Williams to move 3-1 ahead before winning a more tactical frame after the break to lead 4-1. The Thai got himself back in it by winning frames six and seven to close the gap but Williams was quick to stretch the lead back to two, before winning the ninth frame on the colours to clinch victory. 

There were also comfortable 6-2 victories for the likes of Judd Trump against Mark King, though the final three frames of that contest could easily have gone the other way with chances for King. Stuart Bingham defeated David Gilbert by the same score making three centuries including a new tournament high break of 145, while Masters champion Mark Allen was a 6-2 winner against Hossein Vafei and Kyren Wilson was in good form to defeat Yan Bingtao 6-2. 

China's number one Ding Junhui held off Xiao Guodong by winning the final two frames of that match for a 6-4 win, while there was also success for another Chinese player as Lu Ning took out the 13th seed Luca Brecel 6-3. 

Lu is the lowest seeded player left in the competition at 110, though 11 of the top 17 seeds have made it to the last 16. This is compared to five of the top 17 seeds from last year, seven in 2016 and six in 2015. 

Last 32 results: 

Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-0 Zhou Yuelong
Jack Lisowski 6-3 Marco Fu
Martin O'Donnell 6-4 Tian Pengfei
Ding Junhui 6-4 Xiao Guodong
Judd Trump 6-2 Mark King
Joe Perry 6-2 Joe O'Connor
Lu Ning 6-4 Luca Brecel
Tom Ford 6-3 Alan McManus
Akani Songsermsawad 6-2 Jak Jones
Stuart Bingham 6-2 David Gilbert
Kyren Wilson 6-2 Yan Bingtao
Barry Hawkins 6-4 Gary Wilson
Mark Allen 6-2 Hossein Vafei
Neil Robertson 6-5 Graeme Dott
Stephen Maguire 6-3 Ali Carter
Mark Williams 6-3 Noppon Saengkham

Last 16 draw: (Picks in bold) 

Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Jack Lisowski
Ding Junhui Vs Martin O'Donnell
Judd Trump Vs Joe Perry
Tom Ford Vs Lu Ning
Stuart Bingham Vs Akani Songsermsawad
Barry Hawkins Vs Kyren Wilson
Mark Allen Vs Neil Robertson
Mark Williams Vs Stephen Maguire

Wednesday's selected match previews: 

Wednesday afternoon brings an excellent session of snooker starting with defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan against Jack Lisowski. O'Sullivan has had an interesting week with certain comments off the table which have distracted from his performances and at the times the event as a whole. On the table he had to come from 4-1 down to beat Ken Doherty 6-5 in the last 64, while his other two victories have been comfortable, but he faces much more of a test here against Lisowski. The left-hander is almost certain of his Masters spot after yesterday's win over Fu and that may help him relax more than he may have been in the early rounds. Not that his results have been anything other than plain sailing as he has only conceded five frames thus far. The problem Lisowski may have is the same one he seems to have against Judd Trump and that is allowing himself to relax and play well, because he has struggled against Trump in the past with this and given how intimidating O'Sullivan can be, the same could easily happen here. If he does score heavily and take his chances though, the defending champion could be right up against it. 

Then on the other table in the afternoon, world champion Mark Williams faces a tough tie against Stephen Maguire. Williams has been pretty comfortable so far with easy wins against Adam Duffy and Daniel Wells before a good display on the whole against Noppon Saengkham. Maguire has had the tougher route though, fighting from 3-1 down to beat Simon Lichtenberg 6-3 in the first round, before coming through tough battles with Scott Donaldson 6-4 and Ali Carter 6-3. His pot success in that one was 95% so he is clearly playing well too and is in the last 16 of the UK Championship for the 15th year in a row, showing just how good the 2004 champion's record is in this event. Take out the Championship League and Six-Reds from the head-to-head and it leans 5-3 in favour of Maguire, who overcame Williams at the last 32 in York in 2014, as well as a 9-5 win in the 2007 quarter-finals. So long as Maguire keeps his head at the key moments, this will be a really tough afternoon for the world champion and a match that could easily go all the way. 

In the evening session, the main game to focus on is a third meeting in four events between Mark Allen and Neil Robertson. Allen of course was the victor in the previous two, beating Robertson in the final of the International Championship and then defeating him again the very next week over a best-of-11 frame Champion of Champions quarter-final. This week Allen has been fairly untroubled winning each of his matches 6-2, while Robertson has had to battle through a decider against Graeme Dott and from 3-0 down against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh though he did so there with some superb scoring. Despite losing their last three meetings now, Robertson has to remember that he leads the overall head-to-head between the two pretty comfortably and has scored some excellent wins against Allen on the big stage at the Masters. If the pair score as well as they can then this will be a treat of a match, but on this occasion it is of paramount importance that Robertson puts his recent slow starts behind him (including falling 7-1 down to Allen in the International final) otherwise he will be severely punished in this match. 

Thursday's match preview to follow

Overall, the last 16 matches are played over the two TV tables on Wednesday and Thursday so that viewers can watch any of the eight matches over the course of the round and with some of the excellent match-ups that the draw has delivered there is plenty of entertainment to come over the next couple of days.