Ronnie O'Sullivan's Run Ends with 6-4 Loss to Pang Junxu

Ronnie O’Sullivan’s bid for a title at the International Championship in Nanjing ended with a 6-4 third-round defeat to Pang Junxu. The match tied at 2-2 before Pang, 24, took control with breaks of 85 and 73 leading 4-2. Ronnie O’Sullivan, 48, fought back and leveled the match at 4-4 but Pang finished strong, firing in breaks of 120 and 123 to secure the win. Pang will face Welshman Jackson Page, who defeated Ali Carter 6-4 in the last 16.

Elsewhere, John Higgins dominated Matthew Stevens with a 6-1 win while Judd Trump triumphed 6-4 over Joe O’Connor. Shaun Murphy’s tournament ended with a 6-3 loss to Chris Wakelin, who produced breaks of 116, 102, 60, 85 and 63. Mark Allen also exited losing 6-2 to China’s Xiao Guodong, who joined Xu Si in the last 16 after Xu delivered a stunning 147 break, his second-ever maximum in a 6-2 win over Ryan Day.

World champion Kyren Wilson advanced with a 6-4 victory over Wu Yize while Barry Hawkins beat Neil Robertson 6-1. In other news, 2021 UK Championship winner Zhao Xintong returns to action after serving a ban for his involvement in snooker’s biggest match-fixing scandal. Zhao earned a spot in the UK Championship qualifiers in Leicester after winning the WPBSA Q Tour event in Stockholm last month.

He becomes the first of 10 banned Chinese players to return to the sport, having served a suspension for fixing matches and betting on games. The UK Championship will begin on November 23 at the York Barbican.