High-flying world No.1 Ronnie O'Sullivan was grounded in the first
round of the Snooker World China Open in Beijing on Wednesday.
In spite of a crowd largely in his favor, O'Sullivan was
whitewashed 5-0 by Thailand's James Wattana to continue his losing
trend. He has not won a ranking tournament match since last
October. He made it to the Grand Prix final last October but was
beaten in the first rounds of the UK Championship and Welsh
Open.
It took Wattana, winner of three previous ranking tournaments,
less than two hours to claim the victory.
Wattana won the opening frame 120-14 with an 85-point break,
followed by a 91-point break to take the second 91-6.
O'Sullivan, chasing his first China Open title, tried to pick up
his game in the third frame, but couldn't pull it together enough
to stop Wattana from winning it 65-7 and leading the game 3-0.
The following two frames were even easier for Wattana, who took
them 71-16 and 72-25 to give O'Sullivan an unceremonious sending
off.
"I didn't expect that," Wattana said, "I knew I had a chance to
beat him. But not by 5-0.
"I don't think Ronnie was in the right frame of mind and that
gave me an advantage. He seemed a bit lost."
O'Sullivan's failure to make an impact in the events which count
towards the composition of the ranking list means he starts out in
Beijing third on the provisional standings.
His defeat to Wattana means he has to win next month's World
Championship if he wants to keep his No.1 ranking for another
season.
"The ranking tournaments are very important. I don't want to
give up the No.1 spot but it looks like it has gone now," a
frustrated O'Sullivan said after the match.
Also on Wednesday, world No.12 Alan McManus was beaten 5-2 by
Stoke's Jamie Cope, while the No.3 Stephen Maguire suffered a 5-3
defeat to Ricky Walden, who reached the quarter-finals of last
year's China Open.
Newly crowned world champion Shaun Murphy fell at the first
hurdle following a 5-2 loss to Michael Holt.
Murphy, who won the World Championship 11 months ago, came out
strong by winning the first frame, but seemed to lose steam soon
after. By the fifth frame, he was trailing 1-4.
"You have to adapt to changes in time zone, culture, diet, the
lot; but I did not," Murphy commented after the match.
"I played the match feeling totally drained. I was so tired that
at one stage all I wanted to do was leave."
Murphy tried for a comeback in the sixth frame with a 124 break,
but had to settle to see his opponent seal the victory in the
decider with a break of 52.
Earlier in the day, Scotland's Graeme Dott, the 14th seed, eased
past local wild card Yu Delu 5-1 to reach the top 16.
Dott will face last year's champion China's Ding Junhui on
Thursday evening.
(Xinhua News Agency March 23, 2006)
