‘Massive dirty curry’: O’Sullivan spices it up after drab Masters win over Hawkins

Ronnie O’Sullivan relished the prospect of a “massive, dirty curry” after grinding out a 6-3 win over Barry Hawkins in a Masters quarter-final that lacked spice.

The seven-times winner looked under the weather as he wore a thick coat for his post-match TV interview, muttering: “I fancy a curry – a massive, dirty curry. There’s nothing I don’t like.”

In a match awash with errors from both players, O’Sullivan kicked off with a break of 88 but had to wait until the penultimate frame to post his next halfcentury, a 60 to move one frame from victory.

Despite riding his luck early on, Hawkins will seldom have a better chance of improving his dismal record against O’Sullivan, having lost 17 of their previous 20 clashes, including a 10-1 thrashing in the 2016 Masters final.

Hawkins, an impressive winner over Neil Robertson in the last 16, could have been 4-0 down at the interval but instead went in all square after being handed a series of uncharacteristic chances by the world No 1.

A missed pink in the second allowed Hawkins to level, and he was not punished for a rash, missed yellow in the fourth as he somehow made it 2-2 at the interval.

A missed blue, among a number of others, from O’Sullivan gave Hawkins the chance to nudge ahead for the first time at 3-2, but the world No 15 failed to take a series of opportunities to establish a two-frame lead.

A miscue from O’Sullivan, in which he missed the pink completely, was greeted with a sigh of exasperation but Hawkins missed the same ball at a stretch with the spider to let the favourite back in.

Worse was to follow from both players with O’Sullivan emerging on top after a catalogue of errors in frame seven, before wrapping things up to book a last-four clash with Shaun Murphy after he held off a fightback from Jack Lisowski to prevail 6-3.

A fine clearance of 133, doubling the final black, helped Murphy lead 3-1 at the interval, before he produced another well-crafted 123 break after the restart.

Lisowski reduced the deficit to 5-3 but ran out of position off the pink in the ninth frame and Murphy held his nerve.

Photograph: Alex Pantling/Getty Images Ronnie O'Sullivan was not at his fluent best but neither was Barry Hawkins in their Masters quarter-final at Alexandra Palace.