Jamie can't cope with Rocket
Thursday, 28 January 2010World number one Ronnie O'Sullivan raced into the last eight of the totesport.com Welsh Open with a crushing 5-0 second-round victory over Jamie Cope.
The Rocket needed just 55 minutes to see off the challenge of the error-prone Cope, who had chances in the match but failed to capitalise on a couple of solid breaks.
Cope, ranked 18 in the world, reached this stage of the courtesy of a great win over Ding Junhui, but the Stoke potter had no answer to the peerless play of O'Sullivan, who mercilessly punished his opponent's shortcomings.
A scrappy opening frame went in O'Sullivan's favour after the two players had exchanged visits to the table, The Rocket finally putting together a winning break of 32 to put the frame beyond Cope.
Cope looked on target to draw level as he eased out to a break of 47 at the start of the second, but a costly miss on an easy black gave O'Sullivan the green light to take the frame on two visits to the baize.
O'Sullivan clearly was in no mood to hang around and a trademark quickfire break of 73 in the third established a 3-0 lead.
Cope was proving to be his own worst enemy, and a break of 19 in the fourth was brought to a premature end when he missed another easy black, gifting O'Sullivan the chance of a 4-0 interval lead.
O'Sullivan failed to capitalise, however, and a break of 35 took Cope further ahead before another poor shot gave O'Sullivan control of the table again.
This time the three-time world champion did not let the opportunity pass, a break of 60 sealing the frame and a comfortable advantage at the mid-session interval.
And it was game over within minutes of the resumption, breaks of 43 and 52 from O'Sullivan enough to bring an end to a remarkably one-sided contest.
'You expect all these players to clear the table, and when they don't you're surprised. He missed a few today,' O'Sullivan told BBC Wales.
'He had plenty of chances, but if he doesn't take then I'm capable of making a few.'
World number 11 Mark Allen set up a quarter-final date with O'Sullivan as he ended the hopes of home favourite Matthew Stevens with a 5-2 victory.
Scotland's Stephen Maguire also progressed to the quarter-finals as he swept aside Barry Hawkins 5-1.
In the evening session, world champion John Higgins and Mark Williams both made it safely through.
Higgins thrashed Graeme Dott 5-1 after a first frame that saw the world number four make a break of 65.
Dott drew level with the next frame but from there on in it was all Higgins and he closed out an emphatic victory.
Williams beat Andrew Higginson 5-0 in a match that lasted just an hour.
It was a crushing victory for the Welshman who produced breaks of 89, 75 and 68, scoring 106 in the second frame.
Mark Selby advanced following a close match with Mark King, eventually triumphing 5-3.
Selby took a 3-1 lead, including a top break of 84, but his opponent hit back to level.
However, breaks of 63 and 71 saw Selby set up a quarter-final with Higgins.
