Seven Time Champion Ronnie O Sullivan Was Thrashed 6 0 By Ding Junhui At The Uk Championship.

Ronnie O’Sullivan was whitewashed in a Triple Crown match for the first time as he lost 6-0 to Ding Junhui in the quarter-finals of the UK Championship. World champion O’Sullivan, 46, was favorite to win the tournament at York for an eighth time but never fired after a tight opening two frames. The Englishman scored just four points in the next four frames as three-time UK champion Ding dominated. “Ding is a class act and I’d like to see him go and win now,” O’Sullivan said. China’s Ding sealed his place in the semi-finals with a 131 break having earlier amassed runs of 94, 87 and 87. He will meet Tom Ford after the world number 32 defeated Joe Perry 6-4. Earlier in the week, O’Sullivan had said he was under no pressure and that snooker was “unimportant” to him, comments which were criticized by fellow quarter-finalist Shaun Murphy. O’Sullivan, who has won a total of 21 Triple Crown events – with seven wins also at the world championships and the Masters – did not appear overly concerned by the score against qualifier Ding. “Yeah, this is really going to hurt my career, isn’t it?” he told BBC Radio 5 Live. “I’ve been in this game 30 years and I’ve taken a few hits along the way. Like I said, it doesn’t matter to me. “Some days you play and it’s great and some days you don’t. It was just one of those days, what can you do?” The result continued a string of shocks in the tournament, and means none of the top 10 seeds will be in the semi-finals. O’Sullivan looked completely out of place – summed up by a missed black from his spot in the opening frame. “I’m not surprised because my bad was better than other people’s bad, I’ve been saying that all week,” O’Sullivan added. “I’ve had a good run so I can’t complain and I’ve got some time now. “Ding played fantastically well. It’s great to see Ding play like that and I wish he played like that more because he’s so good for the game.” Three-time UK champion Ding has dropped to 38th in the world rankings, but O’Sullivan believes he is better suited to bigger occasions. “Ding doesn’t thrive in the smaller uncrowded venues. You don’t put a racehorse on some murky old track – that’s not going to bring the best out of it,” he said. Ding, 35, said: “I played well, took my chances and had a bit of luck. “It’s hard to play Ronnie, I know when I’m in front he can come back very quickly. But today it didn’t look like he could do that.” Perry, 48, had breaks of 101, 70 and 66 but Ford, 39, triumphed with runs of 103, 86, 66, 62 and a winning 52 to reach his first UK semi-final since 2018. Ford took the win in the 10th frame after losing the previous frame when he missed a single red, which would have effectively sealed the victory.