Summary O'Sullivan survived a sluggish start on his big day to move into the semi-finals.
LONDON (AFP) - Ronnie O Sullivan celebrated his 39th birthday by securing a hard-fought 6-4 victory against Anthony McGill in the UK Championship quarter-finals on Friday.
O Sullivan, a four-time UK champion, survived a sluggish start on his big day to move into the semi-finals at the Barbican Centre in York.
The five-time World champion, playing on a broken left ankle sustained while running last week, quickly found himself two frames down.
Breaks of 98 and 125 in the fourth and fifth frames helped O Sullivan, who compiled a 147 break to cap off a 6-0 thrashing of Matthew Selt on Thursday, into a 3-2 lead.
But McGill levelled at 3-3 before O Sullivan responded to retake the lead and then won the next frame to move within touching distance of victory.
McGill reduced his opponent s lead to 5-4 with a superbly-crafted century break in the ninth frame, but his resistance finally ended when O Sullivan hit back with a 97 in the 10th to win the match.
O Sullivan was quick to pay tribute to McGill in a post-match interview, tipping the 23-year-old Scot to win major tournaments in years to come.
"I just said to him afterwards, you got playing mate, you ll win tournaments playing (like) that ," O Sullivan told the BBC.
"What a lovely personality, what a lovely guy and for snooker they re lucky to have someone who is a real eccentric, a bit like (Steve) Davis."
