Ronnie O’Sullivan crashes out of Welsh Open in whitewash loss to Tian Pengfei, defeat ends Players Championship hopes

A below-par Ronnie O’Sullivan was sent crashing out of the Welsh Open by Tian Pengfei, dashing his hopes of reaching the Players Championship in the process.

The opening two frames went Tian’s way in worrying fashion for O’Sullivan fans and after the Chinese player took a scrappy third, he grew in confidence and took the match to book his place in a ranking semi-final for the first time in his career.

O’Sullivan needed a run to the final to secure a place at the Players Championship, but will now have to fall back on some exhibitions to sharpen his game.

Tian set his stall out by playing an extremely attacking safety in the opening frame to open the reds up and pile pressure on O’Sullivan.

The four-time winner of the event had no route back to baulk so took on a red, but missed by a distance and Tian was rewarded for his endeavour as he crafted a break of 66.

As in the opener, O’Sullivan missed a red to the bottom left by a distance at the start of the second and further misses were to follow. He was down at 40% pot success at that stage, and Tian took full advantage to double his lead courtesy of a half-century break.

After looking completely out of sorts in the opening two frames, O’Sullivan showed signs of life in the third. He knocked in a series of impressive pots to get going, and was unfortunate to run out of position on 31.

The frame turned extremely scrappy, with balls clustered over the bottom left. It took some time for the frame to develop, and Tian got a series of nice nudges and cannons to build a lead. But he missed a red with the long rest to hand O’Sullivan a chance and he looked set to get on the board only to fall awkwardly on the final blue, and missed a tough cut into the yellow pocket.

Both players missed further chances on the blue, before Tian knocked it into the green pocket – with the long rest – and got a kind nudge to drop plumb on the pink to secure a three-frame cushion.

O’Sullivan largely fed off scraps from Tian in the opening three frames. He had a decent chance in the fourth, but a red to bottom right did not drop.

While O’Sullivan appeared all at sea, Tian’s confidence was rising and he picked off an excellent break of 86 to move into a 4-0 lead.

O’Sullivan was whitewashed by Tian’s fellow countryman Ding Junhui in the quarter-finals of the UK Championship, and suffered the same fate in Llandudno.

Potting was the big problem for O’Sullivan on Friday, but his safety was below par and a poor shot when attempting to get back to baulk in the fifth hammered the final nail in his coffin.

The table was not a simple one for Tian, but he picked off a couple of tough reds to clear the road and a break of 73 got him over the line.

It has been a 17-year wait since turning professional for a first ranking semi-final, and it was achieved in style with back-to-back wins over class of 92 alum John Higgins and O’Sullivan.

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