NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
Ronnie O’Sullivan still has high hopes for his protege Zhao Xintong, despite dishing out a 6-1 thrashing to the Chinese star at the Champion of Champions on Thursday night.
The Rocket has worked with the Cyclone over the last year, seeing him as the brightest young prospect in snooker and hoping to impart some of his vast knowledge on him.
Zhao won the UK Championship and German Masters last season, his first two ranking titles, so he is certainly improving, but he could not compete with the world champion on Thursday night.
O’Sullivan was in fine form, finishing with a 96 per cent pot success rate, with two centuries and another 94 as Zhao was frozen out, and made some poor shot choices when he did get to the table.