Ronnie O'Sullivan out of China Open after round two loss to qualifier Noppon Saengkham

Seven-time World Champion O’Sullivan was defeated by qualifier Noppon Saengkham, 6-4, in the £1.2 million ranking event held in Taiyuan.

His first ranking event action of this his 35th consecutive season on the professional snooker circuit, O’Sullivan got the better of Jackson Page, 6-2, in the opening round last Sunday to set up a meeting with Thai ace Saengkham who caused a shock a few hours before by eliminating world number one and new Shanghai Masters champion Judd Trump.

O'Sullivan - a former back-to-back winner of this China Open title - claimed the opening frame after a break of 64, although Saengkham levelled up courtesy of an 81.

World number 45 Saengkham - who had to navigate two rounds of qualifying in Leicester several weeks ago - looked like nudging ahead with frame three but missed a black when 27 up with the colours left. O'Sullivan later forced a re-spotted black after tying the scores, and sank the additional ball from distance for 2-1. He then fashioned his highest run of the match, a 95, to head into the mid-session interval 3-1 in front.

But the pendulum shifted on resumption, with Saengkham winning four frames in-a-row (88 break, frame six) for 5-3 - one away from progression.

World number 14 O'Sullivan kept his hopes alive with a speedy 77 in frame nine to half the deficit, but Saengkham got the job done in the tenth - eventually, sinking the pink after O'Sullivan battled back having needed three snookers.

Having lost his first three encounters to O'Sullivan on snooker's top tier, 34-year-old Saengkham has now won his last two.

A former Scottish Open runner-up, Saengkham will be hoping this week is his big career breakthrough. No doubt he'll be feeling great having knocked out two of the most prolific winners of all-time in consecutive rounds.

As for O’Sullivan - who recently spoke about having ‘two more attempts’ at winning a record-breaking eighth Crucible-era world title - it’s another early exit from a big competition. He’ll collect ranking points having come through his first match, but his last ranking title was in January 2024, and the last time he lifted a ranked trophy in China was back in 2017.

O’Sullivan’s next scheduled outing is at the Wuhan Open in a couple of weeks time.

Is Shaun Murphy now the China Open favourite?

Saengkham will face Shaun Murphy in Friday’s quarter-finals after ‘The Magician’ saw off number 11 seed Xiao Guodong, 6-2.

Murphy turned 44-years-old on Monday, and had cause for a double celebration after breaking the world record for the most unanswered points in a single professional match the day before when he racked up a staggering 607 points without reply during his 6-0 round one whitewash win over Matthew Selt. During that spell he struck four century breaks in successive frames.

The reigning British Open champion and world number six was nowhere near those heights during his latest baize assignment - he had to make do with more modest totals of 63, 55 and 96 - but he was comfortable throughout as he denied current back-to-back Wuhan Open champion Xiao.

Recent World Championship finalist Murphy is a cueist in serious form, and many pundits will now have him down as the favourite for this week’s China Open title; only one of a few crowns that he doesn’t currently have on his career CV.

Murphy is the only top 16 seed left in the bottom half of the draw, with qualifiers David Gilbert and Zhou Yuelong - who have both been brilliant over the past few days - facing each other in the last eight.

To view the full draw, results, schedule, and other information from the 2026 China Open snooker, visit our tournament information centre here.