Ronnie O'Sullivan savages himself with cruel rating out of 10 at World Championship

 Ronnie O'Sullivan was left furious with his own performance against Pang Junxu.

Ronnie O'Sullivan was not happy with his performance against Pang Junxu 

Ronnie O'Sullivan gave himself a brutal rating when asked to score himself out of 10 following his win over Pang Junxu at the World Snooker Championship. The man from Essex surged into the quarter-finals with a 13-4 victory over his Chinese rival. He only needed one frame in Monday's evening session to wrap up the contest, sealing the deal with a break of 95.

The Rocket will face Si Jiahui for a place in the semi-finals, with that match set to begin on Tuesday afternoon. Despite the wide margin of his victory over Pang, O'Sullivan was left furious with his own performance and made no attempt to hide his true feelings. He was adamant that he was nowhere near his best level, having only just returned from a three-month hiatus.

When asked by BBC Sport to mark his current level out of 10, he replied 'two' and insisted that he will need to improve to stand any chance of winning an eighth world title.

O'Sullivan added: "I need game time and I'm trying to get my game back. I don't mind who I play as long as I play my game. It's irrelevant who is sitting in the chair, I always back myself if I can play somewhere near my best level.

"I'm not sure I'm close to that but it can click at any time. Pot one ball at a time. That feels hard for me to approach the game like that, but that's where I'm at and I have to just keep going."

O'Sullivan did not play a competitive match for three months before returning to the Crucible for the World Snooker Championship. He decided to take a break after snapping his cue and throwing it into a bin at the Championship League event in January.

In his post-match interview after beating Pang, he admitted to lacking confidence in his own game despite chopping and changing his cues in search of the perfect match.

"It's not even about winning, it's about going there and being confident enough to just do yourself justice," said the 49-year-old. "It's nice to win but you just want to be part of a good game.

"I've always felt better if I've played well in a game and lost than played terrible and won. I know I'm probably not normal so I've accepted that.

"I love grafting but I just can't handle not knowing where the ball is going. I couldn't even tell you if it was a good cue because I'm hitting the ball that badly.

"I've gone through about 30 cues and I've got to the point where I can't really judge. The way I'm hitting the ball, they all sound terrible so I can't even tell if it's a good cue or not."