RONNIE O'SULLIVAN CORRECTS REFEREE AFTER ERROR DURING FIRST-ROUND WORLD SNOOKER CHAMPIONSHIP CLASH

Ronnie O'Sullivan had to correct referee Leo Scullion after he mistakenly placed the pink ball on the blue spot.

The incident came during the closing stages of the first-half of O'Sullivan's first-round clash against Jackson Page in the World Snooker Championship. 'The Rocket' made a fine start to his campaign in the tournament.

Breaks of 54, 56, 81, 122, 66 and 53 handed him a dominant 8-1 lead over Page heading into the second day of their match. O'Sullivan needs to win just two frames to progress into the second round when the game resumes on Thursday afternoon.

Page made a break of 142, but went on to score 27 or fewer points in seven of the nine frames. O'Sullivan is hoping to win his eighth world championship, which would be a new record.

But while he is known for his playing abilities, the 48-year-old had to briefly turn his hand to refereeing. With O'Sullivan 91-4 up in the ninth frame, Scullion went to put the pink ball down in the middle of the table.

That is the spot for the blue ball though and O'Sullivan stepped in to use his cue to point further down the board where the pink should go. Scullion apologised, with the crowd breaking out into laughter.

O'Sullivan would wrap up the frame to complete his dominant start to the match and take an 8-1 lead. Scullion has become one of snooker’s top referees since joining the PRA in 1999, taking charge of the 2019 World Championship final.

If O'Sullivan completes his win over Page as expected on Thursday afternoon, he will face Ryan Day in the second round. Winning the championship would set O'Sullivan apart in the list of snooker's greatest players, though The Rocket is remaining modest.

“I don’t regard myself as the greatest. I’m one of them, maybe. You’ve got Hendry, [six-time world champion Steve] Davis, and my hat’s in the ring with them. I’ve had a different career to them," he said before the tournament.

"They did it over a ten-year period, whereas I’ve sort of gone off track, got myself together, back off track, then got myself back together. I’ve had to go on longer to get what I’ve got. I was a bit all over the show at times with stuff going on off the table.

"That can affect how you perform on it. Hendry and Davis pretty much had everything fitted around them to be focused on snooker and I didn’t have that. You want to win because competitiveness has been in me.

"I have to have that approach no matter what. Whether that makes me the greatest or not, I don’t know. It doesn’t really matter. I’m pretty cool with what I’ve done, but I’d like to win more though.”

2024-04-25T11:08:13Z dg43tfdfdgfd