THE Rocket finally exploded into life at the williamhill.com UK Championship – but still reckons there could be an unexpected name engraved on the trophy on Sunday.

Ronnie O’Sullivan produced some scintillating snooker after the mid- session interval as he crushed Marcus Campbell’s hopes with a 6-2 last 32 victory.

The Scot had managed to keep pace with the world champion early on in the contest and O’Sullivan looked as patchy as he had during parts of his second round win over Adam Duffy.

But he turned on the style after the resumption, producing back to back century breaks (108 and 100), and finished off with 68 as he moved into the last 16 to face the in-form Robert Milkins today.

O’Sullivan felt he wasn’t at his best, though, and reckoned the match could have gone either way.

“We both had to be patient and wait for something to happen,” he said. “I potted some good balls and made some breaks. There were bits of fluency there.

“But we both missed some shots. You could see Marcus was struggling. He can play a lot better than that. I have had three good matches and I am looking forward to the next one. There is still a long way to go, hopefully.”

But on the overall destination of the title, O’Sullivan added: “I think the danger is everyone thinking that Ding, Neil and me are the hot favourites.

“I always work on the assumption of the law of averages and that those two, because they play a bit more than me, can’t keep dominating the game.

“Another two or three of the top 16 players are probably going to have another good two or three months now.

“I don’t necessarily think that it’s going to be the players that everyone thinks are in form winning. I think there will be two, three or four players and it is their turn to do well. That’s just the nature of the sport.”