Ronnie O'Sullivan continues his winning form in the World Grand Prix amid Ali Carter feud

O'Sullivan was back in action just 48 hours after his victory over Carter, where they continued their long-standing rivalry.

Words have been exchanged by the pair since the final and World Snooker has had to intervene after an outburst from O'Sullivan described Carter as a “a f****** nightmare”. 

Both men are back in action at Leicester's World Grand Prix and O'Sullivan has since admitted that he should have withdrawn from the competition and said the only reason why he took part is so he can retain his tour card.

He said on ITV after his win against the Chinese: “I will definitely be missing a few tournaments after this, I shouldn’t even really have come here to be honest, but it is alright so I thought I would just turn up. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have come.

“The main thing for me now is exhibitions, I am contracted to 25 a year so I have got to make time for them, I have 25-30 days with my sponsors, that’s two months where it is important stuff for me.

“I just play and perform to make me get my cue out of the case basically, if I didn’t have tournaments I wouldn’t play.

“I would like to think if I fell off the tour I might get a wild card but knowing World Snooker they would probably say no. I am just trying to keep my tour card really, that’s all I am trying to do.

“I am not bothered about tournaments, it is not my favourite bit to be fair.”

O'Sullivan was impressive in his win against Pang and will now face Zhou Yuelong in the next round.

Shaun Murphy bounced back from his Masters semi-final disappointment with a 4-0 whitewash of four-time world champion John Higgins. 

Meanwhile, Mark Williams was made to work hard in his 4-3 win against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Barry Hawkins made an early exit as he lost 4-3 to Cao Yupeng.