O'Sullivan crashes out of UK Championships

File photo of Ronnie O'Sullivan of England. (AFP/Paul Ellis)

LONDON: Ronnie O'Sullivan endured a birthday to forget as the reigning world champion crashed out of the UK Championships on Thursday after a 6-4 quarter-final defeat against Stuart Bingham.

O'Sullivan had hoped to celebrate his 38th birthday by advancing to the semi-finals of a tournament he has won four times.

But the former world number one fell behind 3-1 to Bingham and he was unable to get out of trouble despite a pair of superb century breaks.

It was a sweet moment for world number 10 Bingham who avenged his defeat to O'Sullivan in the recent Champion of Champions final in Coventry.

"I want to congratulate Stuart, he played a fantastic match and he's had another brilliant tournament," five-time world champion O'Sullivan said.

"He's an in-form player, a seasoned player now, so you just have to congratulate him on a fantastic performance and I just wish him the best of luck for the rest of the tournament.

"It just shows the character of the guy, he's able to do it under pressure now so all credit to him, and good luck to him."

Bingham ruthlessly took the opening two frames, the second with an excellent 131 break.

O'Sullivan pulled one back with a 59 but turned down a desperately tight last red in the next and Bingham got over the line to lead 3-1.

He took the first frame back as well but O'Sullivan finally clicked into top gear in frame six, a 135 in seven and a half minutes closing the gap to 4-2.

The resurgence continued with a 46 break but Bingham took the next with 48 and 28 to move within a frame of victory.

Again O'Sullivan found a high-class response, this time a 127, but after making 28 he let Bingham in and was punished with a classy 41 break.

Bingham will face world number one Neil Robertson in the semi-final after the Australian beat Stephen Maguire 6-2.

Robertson made a superb 128 in frame six but otherwise struggled once more with conditions on table two.

"Once again the table's just absolute garbage today, it's unplayable," Robertson said.

"I'm just glad they're taking it out of the arena now and we're getting down to the one-table set-up and we'll be playing on the main TV table.

"It looks like it's been playing a lot better than that second table all week."