Ronnie O'Sullivan has been knocked out of the World Snooker Championship after a heavy 7-17 defeat to amateur Zhao Xintong in the semi-finals. The Rocket, who had been absent from competitive play for several months, saw his bid for an eighth world title come to a crushing end at the Crucible Theatre.
O'Sullivan began the tournament strongly, defeating Ali Carter 10-4 in the first round and Pang Junxu 13-4 in the second. He then overcame Si Jiahui 13-9 in the quarter-finals to set up a last-four clash with Zhao. However, the 49-year-old could not sustain his form and was outplayed by the Chinese amateur.
Zhao, who is aiming to become China's first world champion, dominated the match from the outset. He became only the fourth player to whitewash O'Sullivan in a session at the Crucible, winning the morning session 11-4 in just 82 minutes with breaks of 57, 112, 82, 57, 67 and 115. Despite O'Sullivan briefly rallying to reduce the deficit to 12-6, Zhao regained control with breaks of 62 and 128 to seal a 14-6 lead, eventually winning 17-7.
O'Sullivan was gracious in defeat, rising to applaud Zhao as he cleared the table in the final frame. Speaking to BBC Sport, he said: 'Zhao played good, he deserved his victory. I think he's done brilliantly all tournament and all credit to Zhao. He played better than me.' He added: 'I've been awful for quite a while, those performances are in there, they've been coming out quite regularly recently.'
The defeat was one of the worst of O'Sullivan's career, losing with a session to spare for only the second time. He remains tied with Stephen Hendry on seven world titles, needing one more to claim the outright record. Zhao will face either Mark Williams or Judd Trump in the final, with the other semi-final tied at 8-8.
