Welsh Open: Ronnie O’Sullivan advances to second round after scrappy win against Oli Lines in Llandudno

Ronnie O’Sullivan proceeds to the next round of the Welsh Open after beating Oli Lines 4-0 in the first round in Llandudno.

Despite the resounding scoreline, O’Sullivan wasn’t at his sharpest on the day, but took advantage of Lines’ continuously poor positional play to reach the second round.

He took a while to find his rhythm, but once he did he fired a break of 91 in the fourth frame to eliminate his compatriot.

Jimmy White – on Eurosport punditry duty – said: “[He’s] definitely not match sharp, but he still produced.”

O’Sullivan had the chance to take charge early on when Lines missed the black after putting away the first red of the match, but a disappointing ricochet off the black from O’Sullivan led him to play a loose safety ball to spread the pack.

From there Lines notched up a 34-12 lead, but as White had analysed in the Eurosport studio pre-match, he became too tactical as he ran out of position early in the break.

His break lasted to 33 and led to a snooker behind the yellow, which O’Sullivan struggled to wriggle out of without leaving a red on. But despite Lines’ effort to follow up with a blue to the middle left, he made a hash of the open pack of reds.

O’Sullivan took control of the first frame, making intelligent use of the yellow, blue and pink to finish off the final two reds and nick the opener with a 51 clearance up to the black.

Again Lines struggled to make a demanding impact at the beginning of the second frame. His positional play wasn’t up to scratch and opted for a safety shot after he wasted an opportunity to push the scoreboard following a miss on the black.

He won the safety face-off to take a 26-1 lead and develop another break, tucking away an excellent black to the bottom left but is unlucky when no pottable reds emerge.

With the frame still up for grabs, O’Sullivan notched up a break of 30 up to the pink to secure the second frame and take a 2-0 lead.

Lines produced more excellent snooker at the beginning of the third frame but when he tried putting himself in a frame-winning position with a side spin into the pack, somehow found the gap between all of the balls and was left stranded by the green pocket.

It turned into a scrappy frame when O’Sullivan came up short after following up a simple red with a blue to the middle right, and Lines saw the cue ball fly into the pocket for a foul.

Both players struggle to find any sort of rhythm, but it was O’Sullivan made room to chalk up a superb 68 clearance and move within a frame of victory.

In the fourth frame, O’Sullivan finally found his groove as he racked up a break of 91 to land the fatal blow and ease into the second round.

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