ANTHONY McGILL is hoping to learn from Ronnie O??Sullivan after the plucky Glaswegian gave as good as he got before losing to the four-time world champion at the Coral UK Championship yesterday.
ANTHONY McGILL is hoping to learn from Ronnie O??Sullivan after the plucky Glaswegian gave as good as he got before losing to the four-time world champion at the Coral UK Championship yesterday.
McGill, 23, had been one of the stories of the tournament in York after seeing off his fellow-countryman John Higgins in the fourth round to set up a quarter-final meeting with O??Sullivan.
He went on to give the Englishman, fresh from the 13th maximum break of his career the previous evening, his biggest scare of the event so far by taking a 2-0 lead. McGill, the world No.38, was pegged back but he did have his chances ?? he missed a straight-forward yellow with the scores at 3-3 ?? but O??Sullivan went on to eke out a 6-4 victory.
McGill, who says he has taken well to the big stage, is seeking out his conqueror for advice. ??I asked Ronnie after the match if I could speak to him outside as I??d like to pick his brain and get some advice from him about what I can do better,?? he said. ??He seemed quite complimentary of me, so hopefully I can catch him and have a chat. I missed a few when I just wasn??t concentrating at all. I felt absolutely fine and I loved being out there but I just kept taking my eye off and breaking down.
??I didn??t feel like ??oh, my God, I??m playing Ronnie O??Sullivan??; there were just balls that I thought I couldn??t miss. You can??t keep getting away with that; I was doing the same against John [Higgins] so I was going to get found out down the line. I hope it??s all part of a learning experience but time will tell. I think I??m in the top 32 when the rankings are updated on Monday. I??m happy with that but there are things to work on.??
In the afternoon??s other game at the Barbican, another Scot, Graeme Dott, bowed out as Stuart Bingham snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Dott had arguably been the most consistent performer in the tournament so far ?? he had dispatched the reigning champion Neil Robertson in a fourth-round final-frame decider ?? but this time he was to lose out just as narrowly.
Bingham bounced back from three frames down to win 6-5 and Dott, who misses the cut for the Masters in January as a result, admitted that fate hadn't been on his side.
Dott said: ??He [Bingham] played well; there??s no doubt about it. I just think the snooker gods didn??t want me to win; I kind of felt that way when I was in among the balls to go 5-1 up and I got a kick. If it got to there [5-1] I think the match would have been done, so you start to think that it maybe isn??t going to be your day.
??It??s just the way it goes. I could easily have lost against Neil [Robertson] and I had a bit of luck to win there, but I certainly didn??t have any luck to win this match. There are plenty of positives to take from this tournament as I??m playing okay, but it??s gut-wrenching to lose out because I think I miss the Masters again. It??s obviously hard but I had to do it last year as well. I knew before I came here I needed [to reach] the semis, so that was on my mind coming into the tournament.??
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