Ronnie O’Sullivan punched the table during his World Snooker Championship showdown with Si Jiahui on Wednesday morning. The 49-year-old was visibly angry, despite the fact he had build up a 7-3 lead against his quarter-final rival.

O’Sullivan has been in fine form during the early stages of this year’s World Championship and has already seen off Ali Carter and Junxu Pang in his opening two matches of the tournament. And he was imperious during the first day of action against Si as he gained a 6-2 over night lead at the Crucible.

The players returned to the arena on Wednesday morning to continue their match, with O’Sullivan winning the first frame of the morning. But his Chinese opponent hit back to claim the next frame after racking up a break of 101.

O’Sullivan would have been desperate to see off Si at the earliest opportunity and was amongst the balls with a 22-point lead in frame 11. But after potting the pink, the cue ball landed too close to the cushion for his liking, with made his next red more tricky than it might have been.

And the veteran was clearly riled by his poor positional play as he hit his first into the table.

Following the display of anger, Shaun Murphy explained on the BBC: “A bit of frustration showing this morning from Ronnie O’Sullivan. He is trying to push the cue ball into that red and you can see what he thinks of it.”

Seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry then added: “Yeah I think that frustration was building from the shot from the yellow, not landing perfectly on the red.”

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