Ronnie O'Sullivan vs Pang Junxu | 2022 Championship League Snooker | Full Match

Morning, good to be here, look forward to this group. I think all players are pretty attacking so we'll see how it pans out. Well yeah Sullivan break off didn't bode well. Yeah might be a bit rusty. I think it'll be you know whenever you play Ronnie O'Sullivan it's a it's a big day but first time for Farrag to experience it. I'm looking forward to see how he handles that and and if he gets some early chances hopefully settle down and play well. So Michael, you've not only played O'Sullivan you've beaten him. What's the key? What's the key to performing at your best given the intimidation factor of coming up against the Rocket? I think that is part of it the intimidation factor as players we're all fans of him because he's so amazing but when you play him you have to sort of put that aside and just play your own game and that's something I've always been able to do funnily enough. I don't really bother doing playing I just get on what I'm doing and if it you know if I play well I've got a chance but yes I think it's very very easy to be intimidated so you've got to try and get over that really and play well because even if your play is bad it's probably all right. Bad for him's all right for most. Well I think that's the key with professional snooker you don't have to play your best to win you just have to play better than the other guy on the day and sometimes even that isn't sufficient. Yeah the way snooker's the way it's played you can sometimes play better in a way than your opponent and still lose you know if they miss and not leave anything so it can be quite frustrating like that so you've got to try and keep keep your mind on the job and stay in the moment and just take your chances when you get them but yeah we'll see it's probably good red there not quite landed so if he puts the white that side of the table he's played a good shot there he's not got anything simple here I'll get this in early so you can get your entries in early we've got another competition for you today the winner receives two tickets to the champion of champions end of October early November up in Bolton of course the double kiss is narrowly avoided and the two tickets will be for Ronnie O'Sullivan's group so you'll get to see the rocket at least on one occasion the question is in early May this year O'Sullivan won his seventh world championship at the crucible how many on the way to winning the world championship this year so how many frames did Ronnie O'Sullivan lose on the way to winning the the world championship this year answers on twitter please to the official championship league twitter which is at CL snooker well we'll give you the answer as we always do this evening well Farrick's got two good reds already in this this frame so he's got a tough pink here and he'll have a good chance if he gets on a red the big shot just quite too thick all right good job come on now if you didn't know what the intimidation factor wasn't well that pink i think sums it up and if he's on the red just above the black that was an outrageous shot i don't think he quite is yeah it was a fantastic shot and like you say with the intimidation factor one of the most intimidating things is when you play him is that he can go out there and play like he's in his living room and just hit shots like that that he's so he seems so relaxed and in control of himself and if you're a player sitting there feeling a bit edgy it's so intimidating when he gets in and before you know it the balls are everywhere he's just such a he's such a brilliant snooker player everyone of course zoned in on the fact it was his seventh world title which was a 15 a record equaling achievement at the crucible emulating the record of seven from steven henry but send the other records involved it was his 39th ranking title yeah is everything he's amazed and we've all known he's the best for quite a while now um and he's just you know chipping away at all the records but um yeah i mean he's just the greatest ever isn't he 23 i really think it's indisputable yeah i think within the game most players have thought that for for like i say quite a few years now it's it's just um it's not so much just what he does the way he goes about it you know he's got flair he's just everything his demeanor around the table is is brilliant and this looks perfect now it's pulled up i know it is all right i think these tables played so quick the other day um he did the water the white just keeps on going and look how he's just judges that perfect 31 but this isn't easy it's not a gimme but just it's it lovely the timing was exquisite yeah he just always he can always seem to sort of get that feel very early on with the table i mean these like i say these tables are really quick and he just he finds the pace so so quickly and so easily or seems so easily but that's mainly because he's he's so in control of his his cue action and his technique that he can 45 he can get he can get that judgment of pace so early a lot of players they're a bit edgy so things aren't quite working like they they should and you keep running out of position but look now he's in and he just like looks so relaxed i mean it helps being seven times world champion as well 53 54 the referee is dave ford who's having to be kept on his toes to keep up with this place 60 yeah he's just an artist 61 64 in front 59 on so the first frame 66 is effectively in the books yeah 67 it's been a little bit unlucky he was almost very lucky there the blue nearly went in off the green 67 should be enough i think ajay was just coming back because it's the first frame and he he wants to knock a few in with regard to getting snookers i think that's uh an unrealistic possibility one yeah it's the right thing to do get get a few pots under your belt and try and get the pace of the table because he's not out of it yet it's these short matches that can turn pretty quickly so you've got to keep hold on to that i think if i was playing go servant one of the problems i'd have i'd feel as though i was some caught up some form of hindrance because he plays so quickly normally if one player dictates the pace of a match it's a slow player who grinds the other one down but with him i always find that players do tend to to speed up yeah i think for a slow player to slow it down you know people have got to miss and give them a chance to do that but with ronnie just if he gets to the table and he gets the balls open and you'll just keep potting so it's nothing anyone can do about it um yeah if you just keep putting balls you know nobody can do anything about it and that's what he does a lot i also feel psychologically a lot of players go in against him and have imposter syndrome they feel inferior and they are but the point is you've got to try and bridge that gap and tell yourself i can beat him on my day yep no definitely you know he is whenever you play him you're the second best player out there but um you've got to sort of remind yourself that the way snooker is as a game it doesn't you know if you get to the table and take your chances it doesn't matter who you're playing um and you've got to sort of believe that you can play to a level that's good enough to win so it's easier said than done but um 20 you know it's doable it happens all the time 24 and of course he's fellow top players they don't have that problem they they know they can complete 29 yes they're obviously with the success they've had all the top players they've got that belief instilled in them so they can easily compete um they're brilliant players in their own right but when it's an inexperienced player sometimes you can see them sometimes wilt a little bit um but you know it's hard it's a it's a tough game when you're playing the best ever it's even harder 42 on the frame ronio silver well that was a swift an impressive an eye-catching start to the new season for ronio sullivan with breaks of 67 then 42 in the blink of an eye he leads farrakhan jade one nil the rocket is already looking good ronio sullivan has taken the opening frame against farrakhan jade and i just get the impression for the way he played in that frame the way he timed the ball the jump it's a break i think he could be a handful today not exactly a a big statement but sometimes at the start of a season yes yeah you've called that one um yeah you can you know but it's a bit rusty no matter who you are if you don't know how much he's been playing but and you it's very easy to lose that sharpness that much sharpness but i don't feel like he's lost it what again these tables run on so much yeah we use the rasson tables for the the championship leagues the ranking and invitation tournaments and they're also used for the the champion of champions which is an event that sullivan has prospered at in the past and he makes that look so easy but is it that perfect again he's gonna i was thinking about getting on the black here might play cannon yeah we might try and nudge the red out of the way here he's absolutely perfect to play if he needs to be these two yeah perfect just getting on that black perfect of the red before was such a good shot so he did not get there then you got to play a tougher cannon but 40 played it perfectly again and now he's got a great chance 21 absolutely perfect perfect angle to get perfect on 22 makes it look so easy to be able to get that perfect on every shot you've got to be in control of yourself 29 your emotions and he's just so relaxed 30 i don't know whether to play a cannon here maybe not got a chance if he wants to screw into that red yeah there we go he wants to catch it a bit thinner and go to go into the reds but he just caught it not quite right and i don't know whether he's landed now running or sovereign 37 he looks a little bit unlucky not to get on a red there but he didn't quite get the cannon that he played hit the red a bit too thick and then come away come down the table so he's probably a bit upset with the can you played but i don't think there's too much easy on farrick and what is on he's under pressure with yeah the red stain on the table means he couldn't run up there to hide so he's had to come back behind the black and he's not played too bad a shot there but he's left a red but he's fully committed if he goes for it and he's screwing back has he possibly left this red over the green pocket through a gap yeah i think he might have no he didn't but he's played the red in the middle and got away with that yeah when farrakashay missed that ready he must have feared the worst but he's got a fortunate cover on two reds and the other two reds on the left yeah that's why this game's so unpredictable um he's not left there's only a chance to really put him in trouble either so he's had to play sort of containing safety shot could be re-rack unless he's got a ready can pot and now he's got a good chance but as you say michael the surface of this table is so slick it's such a quick table and again ajay was fooled taking a leaf out of o'sullivan's bow and switching to left-handed well done yeah very good but on a red now i always feel with these tables you get a full bounce so if you're coming off eight more than one one cushion to judge the pace it's very rare you're short um so it's all you've got to judge that pace learn that eight i can get a a gap here the gap we thought that ajay might have always thought i'd like to know where we're on he'd be ranked if he just played left-handed it's impossible to say but he'd definitely be in the top 64 for me yeah i don't know really um i don't know but it'd be interesting but we'll never know obviously i actually commentate on the match where he decided for the first time to play pretty much every shot left-handed it was years and years ago it was in the old matchroom league against peter ebden and although it was a league they used to have a finals weekend knockout semi-final and final he lost the first frame 12 playing conventionally from the right hand side and then started playing everything left-handed ended up winning the match and of course we were all astounded afterwards 15 peter ebden wasn't best pleased and to be honest without prior knowledge i could understand why but then 16 as the weeks and months went on we realized just how good he was left-handed yeah i think back in the day it was seen as a bit disrespectful wasn't it but um i think now a lot of players do it you know rather than use the rest they'll play little shots with the opposite hand but uh yeah so he's sort of changed the game in that reason in that way 24 um it's not disrespectful it's just another way of playing isn't it around that time he played a few shots against alan robidoux in the world championship one-handed yeah lane wasn't too pleased at the time was it in the world championship no but um 31 like i said attitudes have changed to it nobody gets 32 i just love his judgment of pace whenever i watch him it's just um it's brilliant 39 40 it just makes the game so much easier because he's he's always usually on the right just the right angle so the shots the next shot's more simple and it just um that's that's why that's play it's just crazy 48 they look just not perfect now so he's his head's blowing off he can't get his head around it and they always get lucky flicks 54 they being people who win tournaments michael is that who you're referring to yeah i'm not bitter 54 and the three so it rapido takes a two-nil lead over farrakhan he's now a couple of months on from winning that world title but he looks just as good as he did at the crucible in early may in these bed victor championship league groups it really does help if you get off to a flying start and ronnie o'sullivan looks set to do just that he leads farrakhan 2-0 if he wins this one it is the ideal start to his campaign of course we'll talk about the the way these groups work as the day progresses if you get the most points you top the table and go into the second phase of the event at the end of the month but then if it comes down to ties it's all about frame difference or a certain head-to-head and then after that it might come down to high brakes it's already o'sullivan putting himself in a good spot right so it won't surprise me if he tries to get rid of that readable black very quickly that's what he's done i think it might be a bit too short there six i'll try and power through the black there yet uh the sort of the red sorry and again they always get lucky kisses don't they it'd have been unlucky not to land there to be fair when michael said they at the the tail end of the second frame i was i was laughing throughout the 80s for so many professionals were convinced that steve davis was the luckiest man alive then in the 90s it was steven henry now no one's suggesting o'sullivan's the same i suppose though empty because he's always center stage and he does have a little bit of good fortune it's more heavily scrutinized yes i will say if you want to be lucky play better and it will happen 25 but like these little shots he's playing around there he played the red before the black there with a little bit aside just to come away and he's perfect on the black again and now he's just perfect angle again to get on the next red it's so easy just to come a little bit straight so you've got to screw up the side rail but it's just it's just every shot is the natural shot where the white's going he's not going to create any angle 33 he'll make sure he's perfect again so easy players get a little bit casual about that just over screw an inch you could have screwed a bit too much there it was not cannon i think he's landed 41 42 i said this last week i'm not saying this with hindsight and again it wasn't exactly a major call but when i saw the table and the way it was playing i thought o'sullivan would really relish it didn't really know 48 how much practice he put in since that world championship triumph but there's no doubt michael he's hit the ground running yep i mean these two shots to get on the blue there he's landed absolutely perfect and to be able to do that he's got to be like i said before he's 53 he's comfortable which i suppose you're going to be after the success obviously but 54 he's just in control of the queue and he's in the white ball it's just a bit too far there funny enough but generally it's just always perfect and it is so intimidating watching him and when you're playing him 61 but he is human he will fail if you put him under pressure at times so you've got to try and sort of hold on to that and uh but i don't think or hope he's lost in this much i think 65 65 well maybe just a glimmer of o'Sullivan breaks down on 65 five reds left so possible 67 clearance available for Farrukh definitely this could be a bit of drama um he's got a chance he's saying that they're out in the open that's a good shot the match on table two to open proceedings in group 27 is being outpaced no surprise there you can tell you Jeremy Jones won the opener against Andres Petrov so now he's got to he can i think these reds go if he gets behind them so he's got to get perfect on the next colour so he can get behind them and no i might be able to do that if he tops off two rails here you know as the red line pass but you see we're before the difference between Ronnie O'Sullivan and Farrukh now he's not perfect again so he's got to play a different shot than he wants to and that's just why Ronnie's so good he's got the perfect angle on the black to get perfect behind the reds that control is is incredible 60 any young player want to look at watching Ronnie just watch his cue ball that's that's the key to being a top top player yeah so many attributes cue action cue ball scoring potting what the absolute lot and when needs be tactical awareness which has served him well over the last decade in particular yeah i mean Ronnie's just got everything he's a student of the game as well i know he walks around like he's not interested at times but he's very well drilled he knows he knows everything what he's doing he's in control of everything he's just yeah he's a master of the game really five 54 in front 43 on so the shape needs three snookers well there's one of them now he needed three snookers or one snooker and a free ball four day forward remain silent so no free ball as for this black it is an absolute must make he's an impatient sort of sullivan the one thing you'll want to do is just slot this right away and get out of there yeah he's a killer so we all want to try and kill it off as quick as he can ferris just got to keep chipping away though because you never know stranger things have happened just keep playing the right shot and now that seems like a really big misjudgment but again this table really is quick even by pro standards balls are actually in a nice position for snookers if you can get a chance and then three balls coming to play for put the red in a good spot so keep chipping away they get all those kisses michael that's what you want to say isn't it they i'm just going home i'm not watching this the best thing to do is put them in snooker themselves so yeah he's won indeed he has ronnie o'sullivan with breaks of 67 54 and 65 that was very very efficient and very quick ronnie o'sullivan defeats farrakh jabe 3-0 coming up after the break alexander ersenbacker takes on alfie burton