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Ronnie O’Sullivan eased to the verge of a record-extending 23rd World Snooker Championship quarter-final after making short work of opponent Pang Junxu in the second session of their second-round match at the Crucible. O’Sullivan was seldom required to reach top gear as he turned a 6-2 overnight lead into a 12-4 advantage, which leaves him requiring just one more frame on Monday evening to confirm his return to the last eight.
Playing in his first tournament since January, the seven-time champion often looked far from happy with his form, but still fired back-to-back centuries en route to establishing a seemingly unassailable lead over his outclassed 25-year-old opponent.
Pang had briefly stirred, winning the first two frames upon the resumption and fleetingly threatening to launch a comeback to match his recovery in their first-round meeting in 2023, when he hit back from 9-4 down to win three frames in a row.
But frequent errors cost the Chinese player any chance of making any further impression, and O’Sullivan swiftly restored his four-frame advantage with successive half-centuries to go in 8-4 in front at the mid-session interval. Looking increasingly ill at ease, Pang failed to muster a point in the next two frames, as back-to-back hundreds took O’Sullivan further clear, and taking the next two made Monday’s final session a formality.
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Judd Trump hit his 100th century break of the season – pocketing a £100,000 bonus from the World Snooker Tour – as he moved into a 10-6 lead against Shaun Murphy.
Trump shrugged off a slow start to this second-round clash to lead 5-3 at the end of the first session, his main regret being the miss of a difficult yellow when on 98 in the final frame of the session, leaving him stuck on 98 centuries for a little longer.
The evening instalment began with a tense frame full of misses, fouls and snookers but from then on it was a contest of big breaks, and one which Trump edged.
There was another near miss for Trump in the 12th frame as his break ended on 97, but he took the 14th with a 106. And shortly afterwards he received a rare mid-frame standing ovation after sinking a black that took his next effort to 105 – it would eventually reach 132 as he cleared the table.
It is the second time Trump has reached a century of centuries with Neil Robertson, who had a record 103 in the 2013-14 campaign, the only other player to achieve it.
Monday evening’s ticket holders can expect to be short-changed as former champion Luca Brecel will also come back requiring a single frame to complete a comprehensive win over Ding Junhui.
The Belgian had looked certain to clinch the match with a session to spare after reeling off 11 frames in a row after former champion Ding had opened proceedings in their first session on Saturday with a break of 141.
Ding finally stopped the rot in frame 13 and after Brecel moved further clear at 12-2, Ding then summoned successive centuries out of nothing, to pull back to 12-4 and require Brecel – who had flown in for Saturday’s first session by private jet – to hang around for a final session.
Zhao Xintong reached the quarter-finals for the first time after completing a 13-10 win over his Chinese compatriot Lei Peifan. Si Jiahui holds a 9-7 advantage over Ben Woollaston in their second-round clash.
