A contrite Ronnie O’Sullivan is prepared to withdraw from tournaments if any promoters are offended by the lewd comments and gestures he made during a press conference at the China Open in Beijing a month ago.

O’Sullivan, who reached the last 16 of the 888.com World Championship yesterday by beating Liu Chuang 10-5, faces disciplinary action from the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) for indiscretions disseminated over the internet.

Unaware that microphones or cameras were on, a laughing O’Sullivan landed himself in hot water during the lengthy delays when his answers, or the questions in Chinese, were being interpreted.

“I was just having a private joke,” O’Sullivan said. “I regret that it happened. It’s caused great embarrassment to me. I didn’t mean any offence to the Chinese people or their media. If I receive a letter from a Chinese sponsor asking me not to go [back to China], I’ll step down, but that’s not the vibe I’m getting. The same thing goes for this country. I wouldn’t want to cause trouble or bring the game down. They only need to let me know and I’ll walk away.”

O’Sullivan described the past three weeks as tough and expressed regret that closure had not been brought to the WPBSA’s disciplinary proceedings against him before the championship.

Stephen Maguire potted 14 reds with blacks in the penultimate frame of his 10-3 win over Anthony Hamilton, but surrendered position on the last red and missed it from distance with a 147 break, and a £157,000 bonus, a realistic prospect. So annoyed was Maguire that he stomped out of the auditorium and later owned up to breaking a tile in a backstage toilet. “My hand kind of slipped,” the Scot said, smiling.

He will play Neil Robertson in the last 16, while O’Sullivan meets Mark Williams, the world champion in 2000 and 2003.

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