O'Sullivan on song

Ronnie O'Sullivan yesterday made himself the target that the other seven survivors will want the chance to knock over when he celebrated reaching the quarter-finals of the UK Championship yesterday by boasting: "I have got more ability than anyone else left in the tournament."

He said: "If I'm playing well, I can say I have won a tournament even before it started," he said. "That's how confident I feel. When I am flowing, it's a beautiful game. It's something you can't explain. Only a sportsman knows what its like when their game comes together. It's so easy and the best feeling in the world."

As if wary of sounding a touch too confident, the former champion, who completed a 9-2 victory over Scotland's Chris Small in Preston, added: "If I hit form I can win it again. But I cannot really look forward any further than my next match. There are no easy games and I've got a tough quarter-final coming up."

O'Sullivan began with a 7-1 overnight lead and although Small won the first frame of the day, O'Sullivan took only another 27 minutes to complete the job, aided by breaks of 42 and 38.

Results, Sporting Digest, page 19