Ronnie O'Sullivan defeats Shaun Murphy to reach last eight at World Snooker Championship
'The Rocket' secures 13-7 victory at Crucible Theatre
By PA Sport
Last Updated: 24/04/17 1:15pm
Ronnie O'Sullivan fired notice of his hunger to land a sixth world title as he ruthlessly saw off Shaun Murphy to reach the quarter-finals of the World Championship in Sheffield.
The five-time winner marched on at the Crucible with a 13-7 victory over an opponent who had a match to forget.
Over the course of the contest, O'Sullivan fired two centuries and nine further breaks over 50, showing no sense of a hangover from the controversy he sparked with criticism of Barry Hearn and snooker's governing authorities last Sunday.
A satisfied O'Sullivan waved to the crowd as he strode on to a clash with Ding Junhui after he won the battle of the Chinese players with a tense 13-12 victory over Liang Wenbo.
Murphy said: "I thought Ronnie played really, really well in the whole match and if he plays like that with that kind of focus I think he'll win.
"I don't subscribe to all this 'not being bothered' stuff he comes out with. He certainly looked like he was trying to me.
"If he turns up to his next match with that level of focus, then whoever he plays next is in trouble.
O'Sullivan played down Murphy's comments after reaching his 18th quarter-final at the Crucible.
"I don't really pay much attention to what anybody says," O'Sullivan said. "You just come here, get in your little cocoon and do what you have to do.
"It's a long slog, it's very hard mentally for me, and I know it is for everybody else.
"I'm like a band or a singer nowadays. But I'm not confident of writing great albums every year.
"I haven't had the greatest of seasons - I haven't written a great album this year - but it hasn't been a bad year.
"I've never been driven by records and titles and being the greatest player on the planet.
"I don't see that I need to write a great album anymore, I just need to be a supporting act. I don't mind letting the other guys write the good albums."
Asked if he had become the Rolling Stones of the snooker circuit, O'Sullivan said: "The Rolling Stones are still the big act, they don't support anybody. Maybe I'm a bit like James Blunt. He seems a pretty cool dude."
For those on the move, we will have the World Snooker Championship covered via our website skysports.com/more-sports, our app for mobile devices and iPad or our Twitter account @skysportspool for latest news and reports.
