Rocket begins with a bang

O'Sullivan: Winning start

That (the left hand) never lets me down. I know where I am with that one. The other hand is sometimes just embarrassing

Ronnie O'Sullivan
Quotes of the week

Premier League results:
R O'Sullivan 4-2 M Fu
N Robertson 4-2 J Trump

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Ronnie O'Sullivan began the defence of his Premier League title with a 4-2 win over Marco Fu at the Penrith Leisure Centre.

The Rocket reeled off three centuries to give an early warning to his rivals that he intends to take home the title for an amazing sixth year in succession.

Having split the opening two frames, O'Sullivan managed scores of 133, 106 and 131 as poor Fu was left to watch on like the rest of the capacity crowd.

Eventually the man from China managed to get out of his seat long enough to make 83 in the final frame, giving him a late consolation.

Switch hitter

O'Sullivan's hot streak was even more impressive considering the three-time world champion opted to use his left hand for much of it, something he admitted afterwards he had to do to save himself from defeat.

"If I didn't use my left hand I would have probably been beaten tonight," he told Sky Sports.

"It got me out of trouble. I'm so awful with the right hand sometimes that a player ranked 100 in the world could beat me. Sometimes it's that bad I don't even want to play.

"That (the left hand) never lets me down. I know where I am with that one. The other hand is sometimes just embarrassing."

Neil Robertson had kicked off the new season with an impressive 4-2 victory over debutant Judd Trump in the evening's opening match.

The Australian - who managed only two draws when he was last in the event back in 2007 - overcame the setback of losing the opening frame to reel off the next four in a row.

A break of 80 allowed him to level matters at 1-1 before a superb clearance of 66 saw him win the third frame on the black.

After a scrappy fourth Robertson reeled off a run of 89 to make sure of the two points, giving him the perfect start to his campaign.

Delighted

"It was definitely a lot better than my first experience (of the Premier League)," he admitted afterwards.

"I've got two points already and that's as many points as I accumulated two years ago. I'm delighted to beat somebody as good as Trump."

Trump had begun the match with an early contender for the biggest break of the season with a clearance of 139. He also took a scrappy final frame.

"It was a good start - I felt a little bit nervous but that calmed me down straight away," the 20-year-old from Bristol said. "I'll take a lot this week. I didn't play too bad but Neil just played really well."