Snooker: O'Sullivan's quickfire quarter-final

(First Edition)

RONNIE O'SULLIVAN, the United Kingdom champion, took only 85 minutes to book his place in the semi-finals of the Dubai Duty Free Classic yesterday.

O'Sullivan compiled breaks of 83, 70, 62, 59 and 57 on his way to a 5-2 victory over Martin Clark.

O'Sullivan led 4-0, having made handsome clearances to win three of the frames on the black. Clark, troubled overnight by a stomach bug, led 56-0 in the first frame, 66-8 in the second and 61-1 in the fourth only to lose them all as O'Sullivan delivered three big blows in succession.

Clark made breaks of 66, 54 and 50 but none were frame- winning scores. He eventually won the fifth and sixth frames, but the deficit was too much and O'Sullivan made sure of a place in the last four with a break of 83.

'I don't know what it was but something I ate last night didn't agree with me. I ache all over,' said Clark, who has now lost eight times in the quarter-finals of a ranking tournament.