O’Sullivan all business at Shanghai Masters: ‘I’d love to win this tournament’

The Rocket walks his own path and is often coy about how much he cares about winning certain tournaments, but there was no denying that he is in Shanghai to do everything he can to lift the trophy.

The seven-time world champion has won the last three editions of the Shanghai Masters, not losing in the event since 2016 and his win over Carter keeps that immense run going.

‘I’d love to win this tournament, it’s one of my favourite tournaments,’ he told a press conference after beating Carter. ‘Fantastic venue, fantastic city here in Shanghai.

‘I always want to do well in the really, really big, important tournaments. This is a very important tournament.’

The 47-year-old made breaks of 101, 99, 81, 74 and 57 in the win over the Captain, looking in a bit of trouble at 3-3 but powering to victory.

O’Sullivan meets his old rival John Higgins in the next round and was asked if he could see any young players coming through to challenge the veterans in the near future.

He has not always been complimentary about the standard of players emerging in recent years, but says there are stars beginning to rise.

‘There’s some great young players. Everybody’s about as good as each other, there’s no standout player,’ he said. ‘I think the sport needs someone. I think the sport is more exciting if one player can dominate because everyone wants to see that player lose.

‘But at the moment there isn’t really one player dominating, there’s many, many good players. There’s a lot of very good youngplayers. Very good players from Belgium, Ben Mertens is good, Luca [Brecel] obviously winning the World Championship.

‘China has many good players. Si Jiahui played fantastic at the World Championship. Great talent, great player. It would be nice to see one of them dominate.’

Tuesday began with Mark Williams comfortably beating Pang Junxu 6-1 and Robert Milkins downing Bai Yulu by the same scoreling in the opening round, then the heavyweight last 16 contests began.

John Higgins continued his impressive early-season form by downing Kyren Wilson 6-3 and Judd Trump went all the way to a deciding frame before edging out his good pal Jack Lisowski.

Trump was looking good at 5-2 ahead before Lisowksi scrapped all the way back to 5-5 and was in with a chance to win the match before missing a pink to middle.

The Ace stepped in to make a break of 74 and book his spot in the quarter-finals.

‘I thought I’d blown it when I missed the yellow in the last frame, I was just over-thinking things,’ Trump told WST. ‘He was potting some really good balls, got in a great position and had that one tricky shot left.

‘I thought it was game over because he looked good from 5-2 down. I was already thinking about the flight home.

‘There was a lot of pressure out there, especially against Jack. You never want to come here and go out first round. Proud of digging in and making a good break under pressure.

‘I know he [Jack] will be disappointed because he made a good comeback in his first game and looked really good again.

‘He’ll be extremely disappointed, that’s why I didnt want to celebrate at the end because I know how tough it will be for him. But for me, an amazing win in the end.’

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