O' Sullivan fails to meet Ding in 2017 World Snooker China Open

Home favorite Ding Junhui headed into the last 16 of 2017 World Snooker China Open by defeating Zhou Yuelong 5-0 while his possible opponent Ronnie O' Sullivan losing to Mark Joyce 4-5 here on Wednesday.

The No. 1 snooker player of China taught a class to the rising star Zhou Yuelong by sweeping the latter 5-0 in the China derby tonight. Ding started the match with two centuries of 109 and 127 points, doing exactly what he said in yesterday's preview of the match "I wanna be the winning one."

"My performance is quite stable recently, I took the lead early in the match so Zhou may not be so confident to win a frame after sitting there for a long time," said confident Ding.

He also said he look forward to a clash with Ronnie O' Sullivan tomorrow, however, the "Rocket" lost to Mark Joyce later 4-5 in the best-of-nine second round.

Both players had stunning performance with century breaks but at the same time made too many turnovers to tie 4-4. O' Sullicvan made more mistakes in the decider to lost 34-62 and said early goodbye to China Open.

He said "average" about the match tonight and "very sorry" for not be able to meet Ding tomorrow. He explained why he keep answering questions with less than two words: "Because I kept getting fined by World Snooker so I'd rather keep quiet, stay out of trouble."

About why did he support Ding in the logo incident before, he said:" I like Ding, very much, he is a good man, people in China love Ding, people in England love Ding, we all love Ding."

Then he finished the press conference with two Chinese words:" Thank you, applause" before people laughed and applauded for him.

John Higgins saw off Mark Davis 5-2 to meet Mark Williams in the last 16, defending champion Judd Trump beat Eden Sharav 5-0. Endit