O'Sullivan rockets into last 16

Ronnie O'Sullivan became the first player to book his place in the last-16 stage of the Royal London Watches Grand Prix.

The Rocket, last year's runner-up, beat Hong Kong's Marco Fu to secure his fourth group win on the bounce - and guaranteed a slot in the next phase of this year's competition at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre.

"I'm just trying to relax and win my matches," said O'Sullivan, after his 3-2 victory over Fu.

"I was feeling a little bit hungry before my match because we went on 10 minutes later than scheduled. But that didn't matter."

Although O'Sullivan had won his three previous matches, he was still not guaranteed a place in the next round.

However, victory over Fu made sure of top spot in his group and now the former world champion and world number one has a chance to impress in the knockout stages.

O'Sullivan added: "I don't care what format they (World Snooker) put on, we're here to pot balls.

"The best man will win this tournament at the end of the week.

"We've had so many breaks this year I'm just enjoying potting balls and I think it's (the new format) is all good.

"You've got to experiment. Why not? It's quite refreshing. The tournament begins again now!" Last season's Malta Cup winner, Ken Doherty, must wait until tonight to see if he qualifies for the knockout stages.

The 1997 world champion lost his first match in Scotland, beaten 3-2 by Aussie left-hander Neil Robertson.

But despite defeat he still occupies top spot in his group after three wins from his other matches.

However, if he were to lose to Belfast's Joe Swail in his last group match and Melbourne potter Robertson were to triumph, then Doherty would be dumped out of the tournament.

Cambridgeshire's Joe Perry upset on-song Andrew Norman, the Bristol qualifier who had won all three of his group matches up until this afternoon.

Perry triumphed 3-0 with a high break of 82 and now has a record of two wins and one loss.

Victories in his remaining two group matches would give him a good chance of reaching the next round.