International Championship: Mixed fortunes for Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Selby and John Higgins
- Planet Sport writer
- 8 November 2023
Ronnie O’Sullivan eased into the quarter-finals of the International Championship after Mark Selby and John Higgins suffered surprise defeats in Tianjin.
Selby led Tom Ford 3-1 at the mid-session interval but lost the next five frames in succession, while Higgins was also beaten 6-3 by Northern Ireland’s Jordan Brown, who rounded off the win with a break of 116.
O’Sullivan, who lost a 35-minute opening frame to Scotland’s Anthony McGill, got back on level terms with a total clearance of 133 and also made breaks of 54, 89 and 53 to secure a 6-2 win.
The seven-time world champion will face Ali Carter in the last eight after he had earlier made centuries in the first two frames on his way to a 6-1 win over Daniel Wells.
Ford’s reward for his victory over Selby is a quarter-final with Barry Hawkins, who came from 5-1 down to beat Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 6-5, the Thai left-hander having made a break of 114 in frame two before missing the 12th red in a maximum attempt in the next.
Brown will face Stephen Maguire in the last eight following the Scot’s 6-4 win over Ryan Day, while the remaining quarter-final will be an all-Chinese affair between Zhang Anda and Ding Junhui.
Zhang beat compatriot Lyu Haotian 6-3 and made a break over 50 in all six frames he won, including a 138 among three centuries, while Ding made two centuries as he defeated Pang Junxu 6-2.
