Apologetic Ronnie right on cue

Updated 23.47 Thu Apr 24 2008
Keywords: doherty, o'sullivan, snooker

Snooker ace Ronnie O'Sullivan is through to the second round of the 888.com World Championship.

The Rocket went into the final session of his opener against 17-year-old Liu Chuang with a slender 5-4 lead.

"It's always my intention to deliver the goods on the table but you have to be in the right frame of mind and I would have much rather have had this situation sorted out before coming to the world championships" - Ronnie O'Sullivan

But he won three of the afternoon's first four frames to quell fears that one of the biggest upsets in the game's history was on the cards.

O'Sullivan was in a relaxed mood, playing a number of shots left-handed and then deliberately fouling on the last red with the 11th frame already secure by sprawling across the table with both feet off the floor.

Liu pulled a frame back but O'Sullivan polished off the remaining frames to cruise through.

He admitted after the match that he has struggled to cope with the scandal surrounding lewd comments he made during a news conference in China.

The 32-year-old even volunteered to withdraw from tournaments if anyone had been offended by his antics.

He said: "It's been really hard the last three weeks to concentrate on my game and it still is, because I feel that certain things that have been said are just not true.

"It's always my intention to deliver the goods on the table but you have to be in the right frame of mind and I would have much rather have had this situation sorted out before coming to the world championships.

"If anyone has a problem then I will quite happily take my punishment and walk away. I'll voluntarily pull out of tournaments if that's what it takes because I don't want to bring this game down. I love snooker."

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