Ronnie O’Sullivan produced more evidence of his hold over Chinese players when he completed his third triumph against one of their number in a little over a month, beating China No 1 Ding Junhui at the Betfred Masters in Milton Keynes on Wednesday night. In yet another example of the “Rocket’s” mettle, the veteran came back from 0-3 and 3-5 down to beat Ding and progress to the quarter-finals. Ding, Masters champion in 2011, could lament a series of missed chances to seal the match against his friend and rival, whom he now trails 16-4 in their career head-to-head. O’Sullivan has won the last four matches. Last month, O’Sullivan overturned a 4-1 deficit to beat Ding’s compatriot Li Hang at the Scottish Open. Ronnie O’Sullivan edges Ding Junhui at Scottish Open “I just had to hang in there and you never know until it is over,” O’Sullivan said. “I just tried to stay positive, so I went back to my mindset of Sheffield and it got me in the zone. I still made mistakes but was able to respond quicker.” The first round clash at the invitation-only Masters was a high-quality encounter with 70-plus breaks in all but two of the 11 frames. Ding started fast. Straight on the offensive, the 33-year-old 11th seed of 16 players, chalked up runs of 83, 75 and 73 to take a grip on the match. O’Sullivan rallied to take the next two, the first with a sumptuous break of 103. Ronnie O’Sullivan completes thrilling comeback to beat China’s Li Hang The pair then shared the next four frames, exchanging thrilling breaks of 129, 100 and 128 at a spectator-less Marshall Arena. As he has shown so often, the 45-year-old is at this indignant best when under pressure, and at 3-5 O’Sullivan dug in and took the next three frames to secure his place in the last-eight. Ding had again allowed a chance to register a win against the best to play the sport to slip through his grasp with some vital errors down the home straight. “I had good chances to win the match but did not make them,” the Jiangsu native said. “I sometimes made it complicated to win frames, I just needed to take simple shots and take the points. I sometimes confused myself.” O’Sullivan will now meet old rival John Higgins for a spot in the semi-finals. The Masters offers £250,000 (HK$2.6 million) to the winner.
