Ronnie O’Sullivan cruises through at the Wuhan Open as Selby and Higgins fall

Ronnie O’Sullivan cruised through to the Wuhan Open third round, but Mark Selby, Neil Robertson and John Higgins all crashed out on Tuesday.

It was a day of mixed fortunes for the top seed at Wuhan Gymnasium, where several big names suffered surprise early exits.

O’Sullivan was not one of them, the Rocket enjoying a commanding 5-1 victory over Mark Davis in the first meeting between the players for five years.

After winning a scrappy first frame on the blue, the seven-time World champion established a 3-0 lead after breaks of 69 and 101.

Davis, who was a 6-1 winner in their most recent encounter in the 2018 English Open semi-finals, responded with 75 to get his first frame on the board at the interval.

But O’Sullivan moved to the brink of victory with runs of 62 and 46, before sealing the deal by neatly clearing from the final red.

However, there was no joy for the likes of Selby who, despite producing five breaks over 50, was beaten 5-4 by Xu Si after the home favourite hit a superb 125 in the decider.

Meanwhile, Liam Highfield reeled off four successive frames from 3-1 down against Robertson, whose difficult start to the season continues.

Ding Junhui was whitewashed 5-0 by an inspired Yuan SiJun, who hit breaks of 120, 102 and 100 along the way, while Higgins went down 5-1 against English Open quarter-finalist Martin O’Donnell.

But there were no such problems for Ali Carter or Stuart Bingham, who were in fine scoring form during 5-1 victories over Jamie Clarke and Daniel Wells respectively.

Carter hit breaks of 145, 102, 97, 70 and 60, while contributions of 132, 93, 73, 66, 64 and 61 did the trick for Bingham.

A top break of 135 did the trick for European Masters champion Barry Hawkins, who beat Sanderson Lam 4-2, while Zhou Yuelong had breaks of 105, 102, 101, 71 and 57 as he whitewashed Anthony Hamilton 5-0.

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Wuhan Open 2023 Day Two Results

Tuesday, October 10

Round Two

Mark Selby 4-5 Xu Si
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 2-5 Matthew Selt
Ishpreet Singh Chadha 2-5 Sam Craigie
Ben Mertens 5-1 Dominic Dale
Chris Wakelin 2-5 Lyu Haotian
Xing Zihao 5-4 Michael White
Jordan Brown 3-5 Gong Chenzhi
Sanderson Lam 2-5 Barry Hawkins
Jamie Clarke 1-5 Ali Carter
Anthony Hamilton 0-5 Zhou Yuelong
Liam Highfield 5-3 Neil Robertson
Alfie Burden 3-5 Ashley Carty
Martin O’Donnell 5-1 John Higgins
Si Jiahui 5-4 Jak Jones
Daniel Wells 1-5 Stuart Bingham
Yuan Sijun 0-5 Ding Junhui
Mark Davis 1-5 Ronnie O’Sullivan

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