Ronnie O’Sullivan battles elbow pain to ease past Andrew Pagett into English Open second round

Ronnie O’Sullivan beat Andrew Pagett 4-0 to reach the second round of the English Open in Brentwood, despite nursing an elbow injury.

Hours after winning a race against the clock to arrive in Essex in time following an exhibition match with Jimmy White in Hong Kong, the 2017 champion started his campaign brightly as breaks of 69 and 62 helped him progress.

Following his whitewash win, O’Sullivan opened up on the severity of his tennis elbow issue to Eurosport’s Alan McManus.

“It’s no good really,” he said. “I’ve tried resting it, I’ll get back on the painkillers and it will be alright, but I don’t want to be taking them for a long time.

“I might have to have another cortisone [injection] which would be my third one. I don’t really want to because it weakens the muscles, apparently.”

On the injury, he continued: “It started in 2022, I had it before in 2021 but it was alright. Then I went in the gym, lifted too many heavy weights and then I couldn’t even pick up a cup of tea.

“From that moment, it’s been very weak. Injections sort it out but you aggravate it and it goes back to not-so-good.”

O’Sullivan began to visibly struggle with the pain in the fourth frame and was relieved to put an end to the match as soon as possible.

“That’s the first shot I felt it,” O’Sullivan said as he reviewed one of his power shots in the final frame. “Until then it was alright, and then I thought ‘here we go’.

“A couple of times I had to play a shot with power, long red, and I was just like ‘eugh’. I was trying to squeeze it and do the exercises which you’re supposed to do, but I was happy to just get over the line.”

O’Sullivan pipped a tight opening frame, which Pagett had for the taking until he accidentally went in-off when firing home a difficult brown, paving the way for O’Sullivan to step in and remove the blue.

Pagett returned to the table needing a snooker and both remaining balls but, following a short tactical battle, O’Sullivan delicately potted the pink to put the frame to bed.

With that, Pagett’s chances always looked poor.

O’Sullivan mustered a break of 69 to take control of the second frame and it was the same story in the third as O’Sullivan raced ahead to quell any hope of a Pagett comeback.

The Rocket would have been pleased to have wrapped up the fourth frame as quickly as he did as the elbow pain started to increase, as he benefitted from some sloppy Pagett play.

O’Sullivan will have a day’s rest before facing Jackson Page in the second round on Wednesday.

Earlier, Mark Allen bagged four consecutive centuries to cruise past Mostafa Dorgham 4-0, becoming just the second player in history to do so in a best-of-seven match.