Ronnie O’Sullivan v Barry Hawkins live stream | UK Championship 2024 preview

Ronnie O’Sullivan launches his UK Championship title defence and quest for a record-extending ninth crown against Barry Hawkins on Saturday.

The first Triple Crown of the season commences at the York Barbican Centre, with O’Sullivan among four previous winners of the tournament in action on the opening day.

The Rocket is appearing in only his third UK-based event this season, in which runs to the Xi’an Grand Prix and Shanghai Masters semi-finals represent his best performances so far.

Nevertheless, his UK Championship record speaks for itself – so, too, does his record against Hawkins, who he has beaten in 18 of their 21 previous meetings – most notably an 18-12 success in the 2013 Crucible final.

O’Sullivan has not lost a last-32 match in this event since losing to Stuart Bingham in 2010, while his opponent has only progressed beyond the last 16 on two previous occasions.

Those such instances saw world number 20 Hawkins, who beat Alfie Burden and Wang Yuchen to qualify, reach the 2021 semi-finals, eight years after a run to the quarter-finals.

The Hawk has reached the last eight at the Xi’an Grand Prix and English Open this season, and claiming the scalp of O’Sullivan would provide him a platform for another deep run here.

Awaiting the winner of this match will be one of the season’s in-form players in Xiao Guodong, who is appearing as a seed at this tournament for the first time following his Wuhan Open triumph, or David Gilbert.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Zhao Xintong makes his much-publicised return to the spotlight, as he faces Shaun Murphy in a battle of the former champions.

Zhao, who won this tournament in 2021, is appearing in his first WST event since completing a ban for match-fixing offences in September, and overcame Sunny Akani, Jiang Jun, Noppon Saengkham and Ricky Walden to qualify for the main stages.

Meanwhile, Murphy won this tournament in 2008 and was a beaten finalist in 2012 and 2017, but has suffered first-round defeats in four of the last six years.

The other tie sees three-time champion Ding Junhui – runner-up in the last two years – start his quest to go one better this time around against Robert Milkins.

O’Sullivan’s showdown with Hawkins gets under way at 1pm GMT on Saturday, and will be contested over the best of 11 frames at the York Barbican Centre.

How to watch Ronnie O’Sullivan v Barry Hawkins live stream

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