Day Three at the Masters and there was one thing on everyones mind,the return of Ronnie O'Sullivan.
Today he faced off against his old foe Mark Williams in a match that on paper promised much and did not disappoint.
The question been asked was,despite his fine form in Crondon Park last week,would Ronnie be sharp enough after 8 months away from the main match arena?Well we got our answer to that question straight away as he took the opening frame in convincing fashion to lead 1-0.
That quickly became 2-0 when he took the next on the colours and it looked for all the world like becoming 3-0 only for Ronnie to miscue on the black and Williams cleared to get off the mark.Williams also took the next to send us to the mid session interval at 2-2.
The Williams momentum continued when play resumed as he took the lead for the first time at 3-2 and the Welshman seemed to be warming to the task as he also won the next to extend his lead to 4-2.
What could Ronnie do?well he did what we've so often seen him do in the past.He turned it on.
Breaks of 104 & 60 quickly drew him level at 4-4,before another century,this time a 117 put him one from victory at 5-4.
Into the tenth frame we went then and what a dramatic frame it proved to be,Williams was first in with 50,only to gift Ronnie a chance to comeback and clear for the match.He looked set to do so,but ran out of ideal position on the last red with his break also on 50 and when he failed to cut it in Williams pounced to make it 5-5.
The crowd were by now on the edge of their seats as the players came to table for the decider.Here it was Williams who got in first,but he failed to make it count and when he later failed to make a plant when left with little chance but to attempt it Ronnie produced a superb 62 to seal a thrilling 6-5 win.
Job done then for Ronnie,but if tonight is anything to go by,he'll have to be at his very best in the next round,because Mark Selby looked back to his very best easing past Ricky Walden 6-0 to book his quarter final place.
It was actually Walden who got in first here with a run of 52 ,but that was to be as good as it got for him as Selby cleared with 71 to lead 1-0.He seem to be inspired by this as he stormed into a 4-0 lead with further runs of 113,66 & 81.
He couldn't quite keep up the scoring after the interval,but by then Walden was a broken man and Selby ensured an early night sealing the 6-0 win.
That leaves just two place left to be filled in the last eight and that will be done tomorrow when John Higgins faces Masters debutant Liang Wenbo in the afternoon and Neil Robertson play Marco Fu tomorrow night.
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