Ronnie O’Sullivan’s bid to claim a record eighth Crucible crown remains firmly on track after he beat Ryan Day 13-7 to reach the World Championship quarter-finals.
The 48-year-old went into the third session of his second-round clash with a 10-6 lead before winning three out of four frames in just over an hour on Monday afternoon to make it through to the last eight.
O’Sullivan, who has 41 ranking tournament wins to his name, will now play either Stuart Bingham or Jack Lisowski for a place in the semi-finals.
“I’ve had such a long time in the doldrums,” O’Sullivan told the BBC after beating Day. “For two years I’ve held it down, I’ve not really mentioned anything but it’s been really challenging.
O’Sullivan detailed how he had struggled in that time as he added: “I’ve had to take medication for the anxiety and all that sort of stuff, even in small tournaments, even when I’m not playing. That’s how bad the game can make me feel at times.
‘I didn’t want to do that anymore. I’ve just had a bit of excitement for the last couple of weeks, getting through the ball a little bit better. Then you come down crashing to earth. I was out there last night and it started to wander a bit. It was like, can we fix it? Can we get it back on track? There were some good bits there today.
“I’m just getting a bit more optimism a bit more belief that I can sustain it. It’s no good being able to do it for one match or one tournament you’ve got to try and sustain it for a few months, even a year. I played great for three years once, never had a bad day, so it can happen, you just have to get everything right.”
O’Sullivan made Welshman Day pay for not taking his chances in the opening frame of the third session as he edged a close one 62-57 to stretch his advantage to 11-6. And the Englishman tightened his grip with a fine break of 85 in the next to get within one frame of the quarters.
The seven-time champion was forced to wait as Day took the third frame of the session 94-5, but O’Sullivan wrapped up victory at the next opportunity to cruise into the last eight.
Kyren Wilson stormed into the next round with a 13-6 victory over Joe O’Connor. Wilson also took a 10-6 lead into the final session of his second-round match and won a scrappy first frame to move within two of the quarter-finals.
Another long frame followed as O’Connor looked to peg his opponent back, but there was nothing he could do to stop Wilson from going 12-6 in front. And Wilson got over the line in the next frame to clinch a straightforward win.
