The match tonight between Ronnie O’Sullivan and Kyren Wilson has been the snooker match of the tournament so far but there could only be one winner at the end of it
Ronnie O”Sullivan overcame Zhang Anda earlier by beating him 4-0 while Kyren Wilson beat Akani Songsermsawad 4-2 to set up the clash tonight at the Northern Ireland snooker Open.
These two never met before tonight’s snooker match and Kyren Wilson said in a pre-match interview that he was looking forward to playing his childhood hero for the first time. It was always going to be interesting to see how the older plays fared against the new up and coming players such as Kyren Wilson.
Kyren Wilson played some sensational snooker tonight at the Northern Ireland Open. His long potting was almost flawless, which gave him the 3-0 advantage. O’Sullivan struggled with his tip throughout the match as he was seen repeatedly looking and making small adjustments to it. It was this distraction that caused O’Sullivan to miss relatively easy balls in the first 3 frames.
O’Sullivan was then left with it all to do and like all champions, he came out fighting hard.
In the fourth frame he came out and made a magnificent break of 108 to keep himself in the match. In the next frame O’Sullivan was gifted a chance after Wilson missed and O’Sullivan made a second clearance of 117. In the next frame he made another century break of 126, forcing the decider against Wilson.
At this point Kyren Wilson must of been shellshocked at what was happening before his eyes and now face a decider against the best player to ever pick up a snooker cue.
In the final frame it was Kyren Wilson who got first chance among the balls. After watching the onslaught of 3 consecutive centuries from O’Sullivan, it was always going to be nervy from Wilson, but he held himself together well to knock in a frame winning break to take himself into the quarter finals.
Elsewhere Mark Williams ruined John Higgins chances of winning 3 tournaments in a row as Williams won 4-1 over the Scot. Both players underachieved in this match but it was the Welshman who came out on top to progress to the last 8.
Both Kyren Wilson and Mark Williams will now meet in the last 8 tomorrow.
