Ronnie O'Sullivan (England) 10-2 Dominic Dale (Wales) Report
A second-round match with another former winner at the Crucible Theatre, Shaun Murphy awaits Snooker’s enigmatic genius after a vintage performance to annihilate Welshman Dominic Dale.
The three-times World Champion had been 3-2 behind, but rallied with a devastating display that saw his opponent not register another break higher than thirty. After bitty opening exchanges O’Sullivan took firm command in the sixth frame, winning four in a row to lead by five at the end of yesterday’s session.
On Monday afternoon, the Sheffield crowd were wowed by an attempted maximum from the Rocket, the opportunity gifted to him by a poor long red from by Dale. The Welshman went in off from the green in the next and Ronnie punished the error ruthlessly to make a 113 break. A 74 in the ninth was enough to ensure O’Sullivan led 7-2 overnight.
Barely given a chance, Dale had done well to qualify for the biggest tournament in World Snooker, making it to the Crucible for the first time in seven years. This afternoon bought no improvement to the Welshman with the Rocket winning the required three frames with knocks of 115, 96 and 107 getting him over the line.
O’Sullivan came into the match in poor form, not having won in 2011 so far and crashing out of the last four tournaments in the opening round, but there was no evidence of this in a merciless display. Dale, who had to come from behind in his qualifying match to make it to Sheffield, was poor in the balls. His showing was summed up in the twelfth and final frame, going in off twice to hand the match to the Rocket.
With defending champion Neil Robertson eliminated by young Judd Trump on Saturday and the seven time winner Stephen Hendry struggling to a final frame decider victory over Joe Perry, Ronnie emerges from the first round so far as one of the favourites. Murphy will be a different calibre of opposition than Dale, the Rotherham player similarly obliterating Scotsman Marcus Campbell 10-1 on Sunday.
Other top players through to round two include Mark Williams, Chinese sensation Ding Junhui and Ali Carter. Stephen McGuire crashed out 10-9 to Barry Hawkins last night and young Jamie Cope also progressed to the last sixteen.
Second round draw
- Judd Trump (England) v Marco Fu (Hong Kong) or Martin Gould (England)
- Graeme Dott (Scotland) or Mark King (England) v Ali Carter (England)
- Ding Junhui (China) v Peter Ebdon (England) or Stuart Bingham (England)
- Stephen Hendry (Scotland) v Mark Selby (England) or Jimmy Robertson (England)
- Mark Williams (Wales) v Jamie Cope (England)
- Mark Allen (Northern Ireland) or Matthew Stevens (Wales) v Barry Hawkins (England)
- Shaun Murphy (England) v Ronnie O’Sullivan (England)
- Ricky Walden (England) or Rory McLeod (England) v John Higgins (Scotland) or Stephen Lee (England)
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