RONNIE O’SULLIVAN paid the price for his carefree style as he suffered a 5-4 reverse to Marco Fu at the Honghe Industrial 2008 World Snooker China Open in Beijing on Wednesday night.

A thrilling tie between Hong Kong’s finest and crowd favorite O’Sullivan went down to the last three balls.

O’Sullivan twice went for extremely risky pots on the blue from distance, with little regard for safety. The first time he was lucky to leave the blue safe, but on the second occasion he left Fu a simple pot to secure the match and a last 16 tie with Mark Selby.

Both players were in fine break-building form as they shared the first eight frames, O’Sullivan knocking in 74, 53, 77 and 99 and Fu responding with 58, 56, 88 and 121.

Chigwell’s O’Sullivan was first among the balls in the decider and made 50 before missing a straight-forward brown. Fu replied with a 50 of his own, then missed the last green and was fortunate to leave his opponent snookered.

Fu potted green and brown then played safe on the blue, and took advantage of his opponent’s recklessness when he got the chance to repeat his victory over O’Sullivan in the Royal London Watches Grand Prix final.

“I don’t think Ronnie was totally focused. His play was casual at times,” said Fu. “But there’s nothing I can do to control that. At 50-0 down in the last frame I didn’t think I’d get another shot, so when I got a chance I felt lucky to be at the table, and not nervous.

“I played well from the start and took all of the chances I had. I felt much more relaxed than I did in my first match.”

O’Sullivan, whose lead at the top of the provisional rankings is now sure to be narrowed following wins for Shaun Murphy and Stephen Maguire, said: “I tried to express myself and it was a good game because we both played open snooker. Marco made me go for my shots.”

On Thursday afternoon, John Higgins scored a 5-1 win over Mark King in the quarterfinals. Higgins’ friend and countryman Stephen Maguire joined him in the last eight with a comfortable 5-2 win over Barry Hawkins. (SD-Agencies)