O’Sullivan rises from his sickbed to beat Pang & reach Crucible second round

VIRUS-HIT Ronnie O’Sullivan rose from his sick bed to book his spot in the Crucible second round.

But the poorly Rocket intends to spend the coming days with his “backside on the sofa” as he tries to return to 100% health for his next match on Friday.

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The Essex potter, 47, began his world title defence with a 10-7 success over Chinese debutant Pang Junxu – a record-extending 75th win in these intimate surroundings.

Yet his highest break was only 82 and this was a below-par performance as he struggled for energy on the opening day.

O’Sullivan, who started feeling ill on Friday, thinks it could even be a recurrence of glandular fever that he suffered a few years ago.

He said: “I’m just relieved it’s over. I’ve got a bug. I couldn’t even stand up there. I’m in bits. I was ill about three weeks ago.

“I’ve been absolutely hanging all day all day, my legs and limbs, everything has gone.

“My couch is going to get a lot of my backside sitting on it, trust me.

“I was just so desperate to get over the line every frame. It’s a horrible feeling.

“I have a few days’ rest. Or maybe I’ll hang around the Crucible and give everyone my bug – that might be a good tactic.

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“I’m so tired that I feel so relaxed, it’s mad. I cannot wait to get back to my bed. I was struggling.

“If you give any player a little sniff, then they will take you to the cleaners. You have to impose yourself.

“It’s job done. My job is to pot balls. I did it all I could. I’m grateful to be in the next round.

“I need to shift whatever is floating round my body. If I’m still like this for my next match, then scary times…”

Rookie Pang had been told by officials the right route to enter this arena at 10am on Saturday morning for his first appearance on the grandest stage of all.

Yet as his name was announced by MC Rob Walker, the qualifier, 23, accidentally walked down the WRONG staircase.

He used the ones to the side that are usually reserved for aces who need to escape quickly in-between frames and empty their bladders backstage.

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After falling 5-0 down, Pang must have worried he was going to be the third person to suffer a whitewash at this famous theatre.

The 23-year-old responded with a magnificent 133 in frame six that stopped him being mentioned in the record books for all the wrong reasons alongside Eddie Charlton (1992) and Luo Honghao (2019).

And despite one unforgivable miss of the black off its spot, Pang ended the afternoon session by adding another two frames to the scoreboard.

Pang punched the air in delight and whipped up the crowd as he took the correct path into the auditorium for the evening session.

He made a good old fight of it last night and consecutive breaks of 78, 70 and 73 made things very, very interesting as he closed the gap to three frames.

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But while there may have been some bitten fingernails, O’Sullivan ended up securing the one frame needed when he pounced on a Pang missed red in frame 17 with an 81.

World No.1 O’Sullivan – who was cheered on by artist mate Damien Hirst – will now play the winner of either Ding Junhui or Hossein Vafaei in the last 16 over three days.

The BBC’s coverage of the snooker on the opening day was shocking and viewers watching via BBC Four missed the end as the live action replaced at 9pm by a Danish crime drama instead.