RONNIE O’SULLIVAN eased into round three of the International Championship with a 6-2 victory over home favourite He Guoqiang in Nanjing.

The seven-time world champion recovered from losing the opening frame to take control of the contest with breaks of 73, 87, 83 and 70.

The Chinese player edged a tight sixth frame to reduce his deficit before two further half-century breaks from world number five O’Sullivan set up a last-32 meeting with Pang Junxu.

“I get very good support wherever I go all over the world,” O’Sullivan, who is playing a tournament for the first time since losing to He at the English Open in September, told the World Snooker Tour following his win.

“I think that’s just because I’ve been playing the game for so long now. I’ve won a lot of big titles, I think that’s what people like: to win the big tournaments, holding all the records.

“As well as my style of play, I’ve managed to entertain the fans.

“If you asked 100 snooker fans who they’d want to watch, probably the majority of them would say me because I kind of tick every box there is to tick as a sportsman.”

World champion Kyren Wilson sealed a 6-3 win over Liu Hongyu with a break of 143, while world number one Judd Trump also ended with a century in his 6-0 defeat of Sanderson Lam.

Stuart Bingham, the 2015 world champion, was whitewashed 6-0 by Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. Mark Williams awaits the Thai player following his walkover victory against Mark Davis.

Shaun Murphy also advanced with a walkover win, while defending champion Zhang Anda overcame David Grace 6-3.