April 30, 2008	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 23, 1429

SHEFFIELD (England), April 29: Ronnie O’Sullivan compiled a maximum 147 break at the World Snooker Championships here on Monday to seal his place in the quarter-finals — where he will meet China’s Liang Wenbo.

Liang emulated his shock win over former champion Ken Doherty as he continued his fairytale journey at the Crucible Theatre with a gripping 13-12 second round win over Joe Swail.

Liang, 21, beat Doherty 10-5 in the first round, and proved that was no fluke as he continued his fine form in a tense stand-off against Northern Ireland’s Swail.

Resuming on Tuesday after storming into a 6-2 lead Swail quickly cut into that deficit, winning five of the eight frames in the morning to trail 9-7 going into the evening session.

Swail then fought back from 12-8 to force a deciding frame, but missed a brown with the rest to allow Liang to prevail in what was a classic encounter.

Earlier, O’Sullivan had saved his best for last with his latest Crucible maximum coming in the final frame of his 13-7 win over Mark Williams.

It was only the seventh maximum break recorded at the Crucible — the gifted O’Sullivan has now struck three of them — and earned him a bonus of 147,000 pounds ($294,000) plus 10,000 pounds ($20,000) for the highest break of the tournament.

O’Sullivan, 32 is bidding to win the world title for the third time after his 2001 and 2004 triumphs.

In other matches, Australia’s Neil Robertson, 8-0 down overnight, achieved some respectability but still lost 13-7 to Stephen Maguire of Scotland.

The Melbourne left-hander had several extraordinary excuses for his defeat, blaming his first session whitewash on forgetting his shoes and watching Chelsea, his team, play Manchester United on Saturday in a match they won to go level on points with their opponents at the top of the English Premier League.

Maguire will play world No 18 Joe Perry who moved into the last eight after sealing a 13-9 win over fellow qualifier Stuart Bingham.—AFP