Shanghai Masters: Ronnie O'Sullivan suffers first-round exit to Alan McManus (original) (raw)

Last Updated: 08/09/14 5:08pm

Ronnie O'Sullivan: Suffered a first-round defeat to Alan McManus

Ronnie O'Sullivan suffered a surprise defeat on the opening day of the Shanghai Masters as veteran potter Alan McManus recorded a 5-3 victory over the five-time former world champion.

O'Sullivan looked to be in decent touch early on, with a 139 clearance helping him take a 3-2 lead, but his Scottish opponent came roaring back to take the last three frames and move into the second round.

Alan played a strong match, when he plays well he can beat anyone. I had a few chances but didn't make the most of them.

Ronnie O'Sullivan

It was O'Sullivan's first ranking event of the season, having skipped the Wuxi Classic and Australian Goldfields Open.

The 38-year-old was ultimately left to bemoan his performance as he suffered his second successive defeat following his loss to Mark Selby in the final of the World Championship at the end of the last campaign.

“Alan played a strong match, when he plays well he can beat anyone. I had a few chances but didn't make the most of them,” O’Sullivan told worldsnooker.com.

"I love this tournament so I wish I could have played better."

Below par

McManus, who enjoyed a run to the quarter-final at the Crucible earlier this year, admitted both he and O'Sullivan were well below their best form.

"We both struggled with the conditions," said the world No 26. "I won two or three scrappy frames and that was the difference.

"I didn't play very well but sometimes you play poorly and manage to scrape through - I was fortunate to do that."

The other first-round match on Monday saw world No 7 Shaun Murphy edge past Joe Swail in a final-frame shootout.

Despite breaks of 80, 102, 65 and 56, Murphy was taken the distance by the Northern Irishman but a run of 75 helped the Englishman edge to a 5-4 win.

Among the wildcard round matches, two-time former world champion Mark Williams defeated Zhang Yong 5-2, Michael Holt beat Yuan Sijun by the same scoreline while Ryan Day whitewashed Xu Si 5-0.