Ronnie O’Sullivan humiliated by Ding Junhui in UK Championship and suffers 6-0 whitewash

Ronnie O’Sullivan crashed out of the UK Championship at the quarter-final stage on Friday after being whitewashed by Ding Junhui in a humiliating defeat for The Rocket at the York Barbican. The result marked O’Sullivan’s first defeat to nil since losing to to Hossein Vafaei in qualifying for last year’s German Masters, with Ding running riot to put his mentor to the sword in six frames.

The contest began as a tight affair, with Ding edging out O’Sullivan to clinch the opening two frames before turning on the style as the match progressed. His decorated opponent managed to win just four points after going 2-0 behind as Ding cruised into the semi-finals with a hugely dominant showing to condemn O’Sullivan to his first career whitewash in a Triple Crown event.

Ding wrapped up proceedings with an astonishing 131 break to seal arguably the biggest victory of his career, with the result marking one of the most prominent upsets in the history of the tournament. The 35-year-old was warmly embraced by O’Sullivan in the immediate aftermath of the match and The Rocket was quick to offer his congratulations when quizzed on his thoughts on what happened.

“He played well, he played brilliantly well,” admitted O’Sullivan. “I hope he goes onto win it now. He just proved what a fantastic player he is, I’m not surprised. I’ve had a good run, I can’t complain. I’ve got a bit of time off now.”

Ding, meanwhile, was delighted with his performance after finishing with runs of XXXX to ease past O’Sullivan and into the last four of the UK Championship in what turned out to be an easy afternoon for the former world No 1.

“I’ve been working hard over the past two years,” he said. “They (the Chinese players) push me to work harder. Will keep trying and doing the same thing.”

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