O'SULLIVAN HAILS 147
Ronnie O'Sullivan hit a stunning 147 to book a place in the last eight of the World Championships.
The 'Rocket' beat Mark Williams 13-7 at the Crucible to book a quarter final with China's Liang Wenbo.
It is only the ninth maximum of his career and means that O'Sullivan has now scored three of the seven 147 breaks ever seen at the Sheffield venue.
The achievement also means that the 32-year-old will also pick up a cheque for £157,000 - £147,000 for the maximum and £10,000 for the tournament's highest break - providing that no other player matches the achievement.
The break took O'Sullivan eight minutes and 47 seconds to complete, still some three minutes longer than the astonishing world record time of 5:20 he set against Mick Price in the 1997 World Championship.
"As soon as I got on the first red I thought that I had to go for the 147," O'Sullivan told BBC Sport.
"Obviously it's more important to win the game but that money gives me a few options in the summer. I'll be getting a Bentley Convertible now - I've been dying to get one!
"The difference between this season and the last 13 seasons is that I've stumbled across a couple of things and kept my discipline with it and stayed patient.
"So I've never hit disastrous standards - before as soon as it went wrong I just wanted to get out of there."
And the two-time World Champion, currently ranked 19th
in the world, admitted that he felt as if he was the underdog before yesterday's
fixture.
He added: "I really did think I was going to get
beaten.
"I expected Mark to really make it count because he's a
big game player.
"I had packed my bags because I thought it was one of those games that was going to get away from me."
O'Sullivan has now moved to the top of the snooker spread betting markets and is hotly tipped to repeat his successes of 2001 and 2004.
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