O'Sullivan departs richer but mystified

Snooker - World Championship: Marco Fu's stunning 10-6 elimination of Ronnie O'Sullivan, the 2001 champion, illustrated the old snooker maxim that a century - or even a maximum - only wins one frame. Indeed, the 25-year-old Hong Kong number one was more consistent in every department.

O'Sullivan departs £184,000 the richer - £147,000 for his 147 on Tuesday, £22,000 for the highest break (unless it is equalled) and £15,000 as a first-round loser - but the loss will cost him top place in the end-of-season rankings to Mark Williams or Stephen Hendry.

Asked why he had not been at his best, O'Sullivan replied: "Sometimes I can't put my finger on it and this time I can't."

Fu was educated in Vancouver - including some snooker education from the late Bill Werbeniuk. He won the 1997 world under-21 and world amateur championships and reached a ranking final in his first professional season, but opponents soon realised that his prolific break-making was insufficiently supported by his tactical game and he stood a modest 27th in the rankings at the start of the season.

However, Fu has worked on his safety game and remained unperturbed by the excitement generated by O'Sullivan's 147, the sixth of his career, and won the last two frames to go in with a 6-3 overnight. He then started with a 133 and with a 48 clearance snatched the next frame on the pink to go five clear. O'Sullivan then won one back before Fu's 83 took him to 9-4. The Englishman recovered two frames but, with admirable composure, Fu made 67 from the only chance he needed to pass the post at 10-6.

Jimmy White, trailing James Wattana 6-3 overnight, spent the evening "chilling out with a couple of mates, watching The Sopranos" and invested £1,500 at 9 to 4 to win the match, £100 at 33 to 1 to win 10-6 and £100 at 14 to 1 to win 10-7.

"My dad's going to draw it because he's got to do his lottery," said White after his 10-6 win had put him through to play Stephen Lee. The 40-year-old made only one glaring mistake in accumulating the first five frames of the day.

Failure at a black from its spot at point-blank range early in the 15th, though, signalled the onset of a deterioration that could have been serious if Wattana's standard had not been even worse. A farrago of errors culminated with Wattana missing a simple black from its spot, which would have reduced his arrears to 8-7. Instead, another untidy frame was enough to see White through.

Joe Swail saw his hopes of reaching the last 16 dashed by Tony Drago last night. Swail let a 7-5 lead slip and eventually lost 10-8.

FIRST ROUND: J Higgins (Sco) bt I McCulloch (Eng) 10-7 Frame scores (Higgins first): 32-63 92-33 2-65 0-93 136-0 66-15 83-4 98-0 73-16 47-60 78-32 0-94 74-45 0-70 127-11 0-100 68-49; M Stevens (Wal) bt C Small (Sco) 10-3 Frame scores (Stevens first): 93-13 87-26 69-5 31-62 60-37 46-22 5-114 58-36 63-25 80-33 25-83 96-0 72-7; J White (Eng) bt J Wattana (Tha) 10-6. Frame scores (White 1st): 31-78 1-58 0-67 49-74 99-8 69-48 68-38 53-58 59-68 83-13 75-5 67-32 67-58 99-0 40-46 (Wattana conceded) 68-46; T Drago (Mlt) bt J Swail (NIrl) 10-8. Frame scores (Drago first): 83-0 76-6 80-28 81-35 12-85 53-46 32-82 30-97 46-68 41-82 57-66 16-77 60-56 8-61 113(113)-0 67-54 61-18 64-33.