Ronnie O’Sullivan beats Zhou Yuelong on return after missing Welsh Open to reach quarter-finals of Players Championship

Ronnie O’Sullivan made a winning return to the table by beating Zhou Yuelong 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals of the Players Championship.

Despite being absent in Llandudno, world No. 1 O’Sullivan has been dominant this season and is in good shape to win all three Triple Crown events after victory at the UK Championship and Masters.

He can win an historic treble at the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield in April.

For now, though, O’Sullivan’s focus is on a triumph in Telford and he started by extending his winning run to 16 matches.

O’Sullivan had enjoyed victory in all six of his ranking matches against Zhou coming into this one.

With two of those clashes ending 6-0, Zhou would have been delighted to get a frame on the board with a strong break of 77.

O’Sullivan responded in style, though, pouncing on an error from Zhou before knocking in a break of 91 to level things.

Coming back from the interval at 2-2, a terrible break from O’Sullivan saw Zhou enjoy a run of four red-blacks, before an unexpected missed red allowed The Rocket back to the baize to take control of the frame and go 3-2 up.

As balanced as the match had been to start, a winning result suddenly seemed far away from Zhou when a rapid break of 136 from O’Sullivan took him two frames clear.

With O’Sullivan 44-42 ahead in the seventh, the pressure got to Zhou who missed a simple green which, despite his unrewarded efforts to force his opponent into a mistake on the pink, essentially took O’Sullivan one frame away from victory.

The Rocket made certain of his place in the next round with an almost processional visit to the table.

An elegant break of 73 saw Zhou concede the match.

O’Sullivan will face the winner of Barry Hawkins against Mark Selby next.

Ali Carter is also through after a 6-2 win against Tom Ford.

It was an electric start to the match with Carter’s break of 116 to take the first frame swiftly counterattacked by Ford’s 113 in the second.

There was a third century to come and it was Carter once again finding his flow with 105 to retake the lead.

Ford drew level once more, before three frames on the spin from Carter put him in pole position to reach the next round.

Despite Ford’s resistance, Carter was able to get the job done in eighth frame to set up a last-eight tie with Judd Trump.