It may be their last match together in competitive play so everyone wants to see what would happen when The Rocket meets the Whirlwind. Jimmy White comes fresh off his World Seniors win while Ronnie O’Sullivan is still trying to make some headway after the Shanghai Masters.
This match would have tremendous audience support for both players and played out in a way that most wouldn’t have expected. Despite being very good friends and pundits off the table, White hasn’t found the better of O’Sullivan since the 2002 Masters. What did the first round of the CoC have in store on Thursday?
White opened very strong in Frame 1 with a break compiling of 7 reds and 7 blacks but unfortunately couldn’t split the pack successfully. However, O’Sullivan couldn’t capitalise and White went on to get enough points to take the first frame. Another split gone wrong in Frame 2 for White halted his break at 29. The reds ended up spread across the table and a reckless safety from O’Sullivan gave White another chance at the frame. White’s contribution included a nice red which was near touching the cue ball into the top right pocket. It was here when we all realised which player was taking this seriously and who wasn’t.
White was able to start Frame 3 with a 26-5 lead. This included multiple long pot fails from O’Sullivan – which is a recurring theme in this match. At 42-11 to White, O’Sullivan got a reasonable chance to take the frame. He did well to get to the blue ball where he knuckled White in the jaws of the middle pocket for a nice snooker. This allowed him to eventually pot the blue but then miss a fairly standard pink with the rest for frame ball. This would have been a regrettable moment if O’Sullivan went on to lose this match. Nevertheless, it turned into a black ball game which White went to take.
Frames 4 and 5 took a couple of visits each for O’Sullivan to win. Breaks of 49 and 74 helped in Frame 4 while it took a little more work in Frame 5. White was in first during Frame 6 with an impressive long opener but couldn’t make more than 25. A subsequent long pot attempt then scattered the reds where O’Sullivan was able to contribute 46 points to his score line. A weak safety from White ended up losing him the frame. From the jaws of defeats, O’Sullivan has managed to level the game at 3-3 to force a decider.
Another long pot miss from O’Sullivan provided White the first real chance at securing the victory. However, an unexpected miss from White at 29 was his downfall. O’Sullivan was able to pounce with a 76 and steal the match from White, allowing him to progress to the quarter and semi-finals.
White shouldn’t take too many negatives from his performance during this match because his potting was actually pretty exceptional. He made a lot of very impressive single pots during this match but just lapsed at a few moments. There was a kick during the match which definitely didn’t help and potentially stopped White from progressing and playing Higgins later that evening; but with the way that O’Sullivan was playing, White had plenty of chances.
And there was O’Sullivan. What he was doing – who knows. Most say he didn’t deserve to win that match – he wasn’t taking it seriously and his long pot % was atrocious. Regardless of his attitude to the game, he’s the defending champion with a phenomenal record at this event and was playing like most people would play a snooker game on their phones – just going for everything. Somehow, it carried him over the winning line.
This match saw great crowd support for both players however, if you’re an O’Sullivan fan, please stop chanting ‘go on Ronnie’ when there is clearly nothing on.