UK Championships

The 10-9 respotted black is ON .

Ronnie O'Sullivan is an eight time UK champion after a 10-7 win over Ding Junhui.
An excellent match from both players but The Rocket pulled away from 7-7 to seal his 22nd triple crown triumph.

Clinched in style with a century.

A fantastic win by Ronnie putting him World no.1 by some distance ahead of no.2 Judd Trump. When he went 5-4 down to Zhou Yuelong in the quarter final he looked down and out!

The records just keep coming! First player to win 8 UK Championships, first to win 40 major tournaments, oldest player to win the UK Championship! At the end you could hear the crowd shouting 'legend', 'genius', and they're right!

The thing with Ronnie is he can seemingly get the cue ball to do what he wants it to do with remorseless ease.

The way he generates power, spin and accuracy of positioning is natural and fluid. It's all timing. He can get the cue ball to navigate through balls as well as through space and off cushions.
He can get it to interact with other balls to make the table layout fit his needs.

All through effortless timing and smooth cueing. It enables both his safety and break building to be as strong as it is.

An artist at work. Superb.

Just love it when the critics have a sly dig at Ronnie and then just shuts them up by winning yet another tournament surely once he retires he'll have a tournament trophy named after him

In what is surely the tie of 1st qualifying round, Zhao Xintong has been drawn to play Sunni Akani. I hope it's on Discovery Plus, I think I'd rather watch that tomorrow evening than the Champions of Champions.

Zhao Xintong is back! It was a bit strange watching on Discovery Plus without commentary, but it was Sunny Akani v Zhao Xintong, and the referee was the very beautiful Proletina Velichkova. Sunni was hitting the ball so well, I was wishing Zhao had an easier opponent when Sunni went 3-2 up. But Zhao won 4 frames in row to win 6-3 and made a 146 break in the process.

Women's World Champion Bai Yulu got her first win against a male player on the WST Tour when she beat returning professional Farakh Ajaib 6-4, and made 4 x over 50 breaks. Mink Nutcharut and Baipat Siripaporn both lost. Reanne Evans didn't turn up for her match with Hayden Pinney and he was awarded a bye.

Welsh professional Liam Davies came close to making a 147 in his 6-3 victory. He was on 134 but he had to play the pink with the rest and missed it.

Artemijs Zizins beat Mark Joyce, but Bulcsu Revesz lost to Julian Boiko. Wins also for Anton Kowalski and Ka Wai Cheung.

Jimmy White won his 1st round match against Paul Deaville 6-2.

In round 2, Bai Yulu got a 70 break in frame 2, and 3 more over 50 breaks in beating former top 32 player Jamie Jones 6-4. She's the first woman on the tour to win a round 2 qualifying match, and who knows how far she can go. She could be the game changer who bridges the gap between mens snooker and womens.

Artemis Zizins beat David Grace and his next opponent is... Maguire!

Jak Jones first opponent in round 3 will be (Edit) Ian Burns, Jack Lisowski will play Rory Thor. Bai Yulu plays Scott Donaldson.

Zhao Xintong's 2nd Round match against Jiang Jun is on later today.

Good stuff for Bai Yulu, it can only be a good thing for the women to get more chances to improve.

Zhao Xintong goes marching on! There was commentary on Discovery Plus, and the referee was Proletina Velichkova again so it was off to a good start. When Zhao was 5-2 up, Jun knew it could have been 4-3 to him but for a couple of unforced errors. In frame 8, Jun learned that when it rains it pours when Zhao attempted a 3 ball plant and missed, but one of the reds flew into the opposite pocket. Zhao made a match winning clearance of 77 from his outrageous fluke, to win 6-2. Zhao's next opponent is Noppon Saengkham. Could there be a 147 in the offing?