2024 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters: Ronnie O'Sullivan advances to the last 16 in Riyadh

Seven-time World Champion O’Sullivan is aiming for a double in the Saudi capital city having won the World Masters of Snooker invitational event there earlier this year.

A new addition to the World Snooker Tour, the Saudi Arabia Masters carries a huge prize fund of over £2.3 million, making it the richest professional snooker tournament ever to be staged outside of the United Kingdom.

If O’Sullivan was to win this historic event on Saturday, he would collect the £500,000 top prize, a record-extending 42nd ranking event title triumph, and go back to the top of the world rankings.

O’Sullivan has had a very solid start to the 2024/25 season, not yet making a final, although reaching semi-finals at the Shanghai Masters in July and the Xi’an Grand Prix last month.

Several top 16 players found themselves in trouble and were eliminated during an eventful afternoon session at the Green Halls, but O’Sullivan didn’t suffer such a fate, compiling breaks of 59, 103, 61 and 93 as he established a 4-0 lead going into the mid-session interval.

On resumption, O’Sullivan’s rhythm appeared affected and Lei managed to avoid the whitewash by claiming frame five with the aid of a 63 break.

That would prove to be only a minor inconvenience for O’Sullivan, though, as he produced a brilliant total clearance of 131 in frame six to cap the contest. That latest ton from the Englishman was the 1,270th century break of his unparalleled professional career.

It wasn’t a completely faultless performance from 48-year-old O’Sullivan - who regularly played left-handed without any need to during the tie, something he said he would do this season as it makes him happy - but Lei was unable to effectively punish his opponent’s errors throughout the majority of the match

Despite the loss, it has been a fantastic trip to Saudi for world number 106 Lei, who was the only player from round one to reach the last 32 and set up a meeting with a player from the sport’s top 16 elite bracket.

The £20,000 that Lei earns for efforts is the biggest payday of his professional career, so far.

As for O’Sullivan, he will now prepare for a mouth-watering last 16 fixture with Zhang Anda on Wednesday after the world number 12 astonishingly conjured up a quadruple of century breaks in a 5-0 whitewash win over Ben Woollaston.

The International Championship title holder registered runs of 138, 128, 50, 138 and 138 (yes, that’s correct, he made a hat-trick of 138 breaks) to send a statement out to the rest of the remaining field in Riyadh.

Zhang has defeated O’Sullivan in each of their two most previous meetings, both last season; in the last 16 of the English Open and the semi-finals of the aforementioned International Championship in China.

Mixed results for world champions; Wilson and Williams win, Brecel and Higgins lose

John Higgins' long, uninterrupted stay within the world's top 16 rankings is under serious threat as he'll collect no ranking points from this event after losing to an in-form Jimmy Robertson, 5-2.

Higgins produced a trademark counter clearance of 72 to the final pink to get on the board in frame four, but it's Robertson - who fashioned runs of 66, 51, 64, 122 and 63 during the match - in the round six mix.

Luca Brecel's woes on the tour continue as he was defeated 5-2 by world number 28 Pang Junxu.

The 2023 World Champion has not won a ranking event match since March 19th earlier this year, and with his Crucible prize money to drop from his rankings total at the end of the season, Brecel is in freefall on the provisional end-of-season list.

Reigning World Champion Kyren Wilson overcame the loss of the opening frame by stringing together the next four frames to take control of his encounter with Liu Hongyu.

World number 66 Liu responded by hitting breaks of 90 and 52 on his way to reducing the deficit to only one, but Wilson avoided the stress of a deciding frame as he crafted a break of 118 in frame eight to record a 5-3 win.

A Crucible champion who did have to endure a decider was Mark Williams as he ousted Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, 5-4.

There was never more than a frame between the two, but Williams came good when it mattered the most in the final frame, finishing in style with a 101.

Someone who is knocking on the door of a maiden ranking event title win and a berht in the world's top 16 for the first time is China's Si Jiahui, and the 22-year-old could still achieve both of those ambitions later this week in the Middle East after he eliminated world number 13 Tom Ford, 5-2.

The final result to come in was Stuart Bingham’s narrow 5-4 victory over Ding Junhui that featured a bizarre and unfortunate incident in the deciding frame.

Whilst potting a black on a break of 32 and in front in the decider, Ding's tip flew off and hit a red ball. This was correctly called a foul by referee Olivier Marteel who saw it happen, but Ding didn't.

Ding went to get his tip replaced, but when he came back into the arena and play resumed, he didn't get another shot as 2015 World Champion Bingham made a match-winning break of 63 - fully capitalising on the lovely split on the pack of reds and ideal position Ding achieved off his ill-fated pot on the black.

For the draw, results and other important details, please visit our 2024 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters Tournament Information Centre, here.