RONNIE O’Sullivan recovered from a mid-match crisis as he beat reigning champion Ding Junhui in the first match of the BGC Masters at Alexandra Palace, London.

‘The Rocket’ led 4-1 and looked to be cruising to victory but Ding’s fightback began with a fluked red and he won three frames in succession to draw level.

Aided by the vocal support of the London crowd, O’Sullivan made a break of 51 which put him on course for the frame, and he completed his victory in the next with a break of 125, which would have been a total clearance were it not for the black staying up.

After the match, O’Sullivan admitted he was fortunate to regain his composure after Ding’s stroke of luck in the sixth frame. Speaking to BBC television, he said: “You lose a frame like that against someone like Ding and you think he could punish you.

“You expect to lose two or three frames off the back of that and that’s what happened. I still had couple of chances but my head went really.

“At 4-1 down he was probably thinking he was out of it, but at 4-4 he was back in it and it was a different game.”

In the evening session, Mark Williams beat Stephen Maguire by the same scoreline to progress to the last eight.

A break of 57 took the Welshman close to the winning line in the first frame, but he ultimately had to down the final black after his opponent fought his way back.

Williams took the second with a 72 and the next with a 64, before runs of 35 and 53 saw him claim all of the frames before the mid-session interval.

Maguire, who came into the match having just won the latest PTC event in Munich, cut the deficit to 4-2 when play resumed, before Williams won a scrappy seventh frame to leave him needing one more for victory.

Williams looked set to take frame eight with some excellent safety play, but he then missed an easy red and the Scot battled to claw one back, before adding the next with a 77 to go just one frame behind.

However, Williams made a break of 51 in frame 10 to take the match, and he will now face the winner of the clash between Neil Robertson and Mark Allen.