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DAQING, China, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- Ronnie O' Sullivan beat Xiao Guodong 6-4 in his impressive first appearance at 2016 World Snooker International Championship with a crucial respotted black here on Monday.
In his first-ever frame in Daqing, O' Sullivan impressed the audience with a 137-point break. The "Rocket" soon took a 3-1 lead before the short break. But Xiao managed to cut the deficit down to 4-5 before the 10th frame.
While Xiao established his lead early, O' Sullivan still cleared the table to tie 62-62. Both players had to play the respotted black to decide their destiny. Xiao took a risk to try a long range shoot but dropped the cue ball to hand O' sullivan a 6-4 victory.
"Ding plays a lot of matches in China, but I only play one or two a year. Thank the support of Chinese fans. But Ding is younger than me. So he can play much longer," O' Sullivan talked about why he had more audiences here tonight than Ding Junhui, who defeated David Grace on the next table.
Ding enjoyed a 6-1 rapid victory over his opponent tonight. But right before the break he missed the key brown to stop at 125 points. He lowed his body on the table to express his disappointment of missing a 147-point break.
Liang Wenbo, another home favorite who won first personal ranking events title in English Open 2016, had the second 6-5 victory in two days to head to the second round of this year's International Championship.
