Rocket Crashes Out In Beijing
‘Rocket’ Ronnie O’Sullivan made a shock exit from the 2010 China Open at the hands of local hero, Tian Pengfei.
It appeared that O’Sullivan underestimated or failed to respect his 22-year-old opponent as he made a string of unforced errors, adopting a more carefree approach than normal.
The world number one looked to be cruising to a 3-1 interval lead, when he missed a straight forward pink handing the opportunity to Tian to clear up. He did, and went in at half-time all square at 2-2.
After the interval, O’Sullivan again looked in control but a missed red on 61, allowed Tian back in to clear with 63 to pinch the frame and take the lead.
O’Sullivan levelled at 3-3 but it was Pengfei who again took the lead with an impressive 85 clearance after Ronnie had gone for a disrespectfully ambitious red along the baulk cushion.
The eighth frame proved to be a catalogue of errors with both players missing clear opportunities to win the frame. Eventually Pengfei fluked the green leaving a tough brown to the middle with an easy blue, a sequence that would have given him a famous win.
He missed it and Ronnie potted a long brown, blue to the centre and a pink which gave him perfect position on the final black. Relieved to have avoided defeat O’Sullivan mistimed the shot, decelerated the cue on delivery and had to watch as the black rolled slowly towards the right hand jaw of the pocket and failed to drop.
With the black on the edge of the pocket, O’Sullivan didn’t even require his opponent to pot the black. He shook hands and quite literally handed his opponent a place in the last 16. On his way out of the arena, Ronnie slammed the offending black ball into the pocket with his hand.
Overall, Pengfei was deserving of the win. He took advantage of an uncharacteristic number of misses by the three times world champion, who looked as though he felt he would win eventually.
There were glimpses of the O’Sullivan magic, who drew massive roars from the packed house at the Student’s Gymnasium in Beijing.
O’Sullivan will be on the next available flight out of the Chinese capital and return to the UK in preparation for the Betfred.com world championship in Sheffield next month, where he is the bookmakers favourite to take home the title.
