World snooker champion Ronnie O’Sullivan just missed out on breaking Tony Drago’s world record for a century break on his way to a 4-0 win over Bai Langning at the Scottish Open this week.
O’Sullivan was in no mood for hanging around in Edinburgh on Monday as he took just 43 minutes to complete his whitewash victory over the Chinese player, averaging 11.4 seconds per shot throughout the tie.
After edging a tight first frame, O’Sullivan composed his quickfire break of 118 to lead 2-0. The break narrowly fell short of overturning Drago’s record of three minutes and 31 seconds, which was set at the 1996 UK Championship in the quarter-final match against John Higgins.
O’Sullivan then added the third frame, before closing out the victory with a break of 56 in the fourth. Next up O’Sullivan faces Ben Woollaston, as he continues his bid to win the Stephen Hendry Trophy for the first time.
“I just felt like I needed to speed up a bit. I needed to try and enjoy it,” said 46-year-old O’Sullivan.
Malta’s snooker great Drago gave his reaction to O’Sullivan’s performance on his facebook page and said that he enjoyed the performance of the ‘Rocket’, as O’Sullivan is fondly known, but at the same time he was proud to still be holding the record for 26-and-a-half years.
“What a buzz last night watching the rocket fizz around the table what a century 3 min 34 sec miss my record by 1 second,” Drago wrote.
“I’m proud to be holding the record for the fastest century for over 26 years now but records are there to be broken and if the greatest ever player of all time beats it, well it’s not that bad I have it for 26 and half years and still mine for now. Haha enjoy the snooker guys!”
