Ronnie O'Sullivan stunned by 'world class' Xiao Guodong at Champion of Champions

Today at 10:06 AM

Ronnie O’Sullivan is out of the Champion of Champions after a stunning comeback from Xiao Guodong saw the underdog bounce back from losing the first three frames to win 4-3.

The Rocket looked in fabulous form as he won the opening three frames in short order, with Xiao not scoring a single point as O’Sullivan scored 318.

However, the recent Wuhan Open champion was not fazed by the early brilliance of the seven-time world champ and found his own form in some style.

O’Sullivan had made breaks of 95 and 125 to go 3-0 up, before Xiao responded with efforts of 130, 88 and 85 to take the match to a decider, with the Rocket not scoring a point in those three.

The decider, as it so often is, was an edgier affair and became the only frame for both players to score points.

Both men had chances but Xiao got ahead early and even though he missed a good opportunity to get over the line he eventually battled through some nerves to do so.

While it got nervy at the end, Stephen Hendry on commentary described Xiao’s trio of breaks to force a decider as ‘world class’ and said: ‘I knew he was good, but I didn’t know he was this good.’

It is a big surprise from O’Sullivan being 3-0 ahead, but Xiao has been in the better form of the two players of late having won in Wuhan and followed it with a run to the semi-finals of the International Championship.

O’Sullivan has skipped a number of events so far this campaign and has not been beyond a semi-final yet this season.

However, form and fluency was not a problem for him against Xiao, it was just the brilliance of the Chinese star.

The world number 16 now goes on to play the winner of Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy in the group final later on Thursday.

More to follow…