THE ROCKET CRASHES OUT AS MEI HITS BACK FOR ‘NUMPTIES’
RONNIE O’SULLIVAN crashed out of the English Open last night after another turbulent week in Crawley.
The Rocket slumped to a 4-3 defeat by Chinese journeyman Mei Xiwen at the K2 Leisure Centre.
Five-time world champion O’Sullivan, 43, led 3-2, but glaring misses allowed Mei, 37, to chalk up the biggest win of his life.
The world No.70 had never been past the last-16 stage, but is now into today’s quarter-finals.
But, for O’Sullivan, it was a grim night after more fierce criticism from him about the venue, the town and facing lower-ranked players.
But Mei hit back for the “numpties”, as O’Sullivan has called them in the past, to end his chances of a record 37th ranking title.
O’Sullivan said: “Look, Mei seemed a good match-player and he played well tonight and deserved his victory. I didn’t do masses wrong.
“I get made the favourite and I could easily have won this event, but I’m looking forward to the China events, I prioritise them even if I have to qualify.
“Anything can happen in these best-of-seven matches, look who has lost today. Usually the top players come out on top.
“But there are no excuses from me tonight, the result is invariably right – I haven’t lost many matches that I haven’t deserved to.”
Earlier, world No.1 Judd Trump was knocked out by Lee Walker.
The reigning world champion was left shell-shocked as Walker, 43, produced the performance of his life to pull off a shock 4-2 win.
Trump said: “Sometimes you have to take your medicine. I don’t like losing, but Lee played really well.”