Ronnie O'Sullivan cues a shot as Thailand's James Wattana looks on during their Bank of Communications Shanghai Masters clash yesterday. O'Sullivan advanced with a 5-1 win.

Ronnie O'Sullivan overpowered a struggling James Wattana 5-1 to book his place in the last 16 of the Bank of Communications Shanghai Masters yesterday.

Thailand's Wattana paid a heavy price for failing to make the most of his scoring chances as runs of 76, 111, 110 and 97 helped the three-time world champion O'Sullivan secure a match in the second round with Anthony Hamilton, who beat Stephen Maguire 5-4.

Wattana won the third frame of the match, but struggled badly to subject O'Sullivan to any sustained period of pressure.

Shaun Murphy reeled off four straight frames to complete a fortunate 5-4 win over Dominic Dale earlier in the day.

Dale, the 2007 Shanghai Masters winner, blew several chances yesterday to fall over the winning line, including missing an easy brown on its spot in the eighth frame when he required the final four colors to complete an unexpected victory over the 2005 world champion.

Murphy will surely have to improve to down Mark Allen in the last 16. The young Northern Irishman lost the first two frames of the day against Welshman Ryan Day, but won the next five to progress with some ease.

Dale opened with an immaculate run of 128, and should have found himself 2-0 ahead only to suffer an untimely kick on the final black that saw the frame ball stay out as Murphy levelled at 1-1.

Welshman Dale did not let that deter him as a neat little safety shot enabled him to move 2-1 clear before a terrific long green from Dale was the key to a 3-1 lead at the mid-session interval.

That became 4-1 when Dale fluked a brown before sinking the blue, pink and black to move to within one frame of the next round.

Despite contributing a high break of only 45 in the match, Murphy continued to scrap gamely. He needed a couple of visits to the table in the sixth and seventh frames, but was not punished by Dale, who failed to pot a ball as the bout of the jitters appear to take a grip upon 'The Spaceman'.

Pressure

With the pressure visibly telling on Dale's cue action, Murphy restored parity at 4-4. Dale had opportunities in the final frame, but the curtain fell on his campaign when he fluked the final red needing snookers before missing a final black that prompted an almost sympathetic handshake from victor Murphy.

Mark King also went the distance with fellow Englishman Ali Carter before completing a 5-4 victory in a match that could have went either way. He will face Ireland's Fergal O'Brien in the last 16 after he usurped Peter Ebdon 5-3 in a match that ran for over four hours.

None of the six Chinese wildcard holders advanced from their first round matches on Monday.

China's promising young player Rouzi Maimaiti lost 2-5 to Jack Lisowski, while both Li Hang and Tang Jun lost 0-5 respectively.