O'Sullivan progresses without fuss

Ronnie O'Sullivan
12 April 2012

Ronnie O'Sullivan made short work of Dominic Dale as he raced through to the second round of the Betfred.com World Championship.

Despite his recent threat to pull out of the tournament, three-time former winner O'Sullivan gave a confident performance in his opener and took the three remaining frames he required with high breaks to seal a 10-2 success.

He was helped throughout the match by Welshman Dale leaving him plenty of easy starting reds, and nobody is more ruthless than O'Sullivan when given half a chance.

The 35-year-old twice threatened maximum breaks on Monday, and did secure his 100th career Crucible century in frame eight, as Dale's early challenge faded.

At one stage it was 2-2, but O'Sullivan pulled away and had brisk breaks of 115, 96 and 100 to sprint through to a clash with Shaun Murphy, the 2005 champion, in the second round.

There could hardly have been an easier first match of the championship for O'Sullivan, as Dale underperformed and failed to make it a real contest. Victory was O'Sullivan's first in a ranking tournament match since September, when he reached the World Open final, and halts a run of four straight first-round defeats in major events.

O'Sullivan has consulted a sports psychiatrist to deal with the personal issues which have led his form to dip and commitment to snooker to falter, and he claimed the move is a last-ditch effort to rescue his career.

"I've just found it difficult sometimes - a lot of the time," O'Sullivan said. "I've taken steps by employing new coaches, sport psychologists, just to try to keep the motivation to play there. One day it might click and this is the last throw of the dice as far as I'm concerned.

"It has been a bit of a shift in the last week or so. It doesn't mean I'm going to go on and win this tournament or the next tournaments but if I can get back to enjoying playing again and being out there, that's the most important thing for me.

"I have nothing to really prove, I've done this since I was seven and I'd like to do it as long as I can. But sometimes it's not easy."

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