World number one Ronnie O’Sullivan kept his bid for a third Welsh Open title alive in style with a 5-0 victory over an erratic Jamie Cope in just 56 minutes today. Mark Allen and Stephen Maguire also progressed this afternoon…
The Welsh Open might not be the most important tournament of Ronnie O’Sullivan’s season but now into the quarter-finals he will be beginning to fancy his chances. While he played reasonably well today however, Jamie Cope by all accounts was well below his best, missing several balls and failing to make a break over 47. For all his ability Jamie seems to struggle to perform well on a consistent basis and when the balls are not going in, fails to get points on the board. Again it looks like his chase for a top 16 place will go all the way to the wire…
Ronnie will now face Mark Allen in the last eight as the world number 11 put on a show to overcome home favourite Matthew Stevens today. Matthew actually recorded two century breaks in the match but could not win another frame as Allen scored heavily in almost all of the others. Can he pull off another victory over O’Sullivan after his famous win at the Crucible last year? Maybe, though like Jamie he has not always been the most consistent player in the world and will have to play well again.
Also through is Stephen Maguire who easily saw off the challenge of Barry Hawkins to reach another ranking event quarter-final. After a slow start to this season he is now beginning to win more matches and get some points on the board to avoid a big drop down the rankings. More importantly however it has been a couple of years now since the Scot won a ranking event title and looking at the draw this is a real opportunity for him.
Those out to stop him however include the likes of Mark Williams, Mark Selby and John Higgins who are all in action tonight as they attempt to book their quarter-final places…