O'Sullivan plays Quinten Hann next

The victory comes after a humbling 5-0 defeat to Matthew Stevens in last month's LG Cup.

And O'Sullivan admitted that he had gone off the rails after winning the European Open and Irish Masters titles in March.

"I set the foundations by winning those two titles and built up a lot of confidence but I sabotaged it before the Scottish Open by doing a lot of things I shouldn't have been doing," O'Sullivan said.

"That spilled over into the world championship and after I lost in the first round I just decided to go ballistic.

"I can't just go out for half a lager, I have to go out for four days.

"It all left a sour taste in my mouth for the year. My behaviour wasn't right and I paid the penalty.

"But after Matthew beat me 5-0 it was back to the drawing board. I'm enjoying the road to recovery and this result will help."

O'Sullivan trailed 3-2 but won the sixth to draw level, and wrapped up victory with breaks of 75 and 50.

He now faces Australian Quinten Hann, who reached the third round despite cutting his hand on a toilet door in the mid-session interval.

Hann recovered to beat Andy Hicks 5-3.

Earlier England's Paul Hunter eased through to the last 16 of the British Open with a 5-2 victory over countryman Shaun Murphy.

Hunter reached the interval with Murphy level at 2-2 after pinching the first frame on the colours and the fourth with a 34 clearance to the pink.

But the world number eight went through the gears to close out the contest with breaks of 104, 63 and 112.

Hunter's latter effort could have been a maximum but he failed to pot a very difficult 15th red down the side cushion.

Hunter will take on David Gray, the reigning Scottish Open champion, who beat Stockport's Nick Dyson 5-2.

Gray, the world number 12, held a 3-2 lead before closing out victory with breaks of 65 and 67.

Matthew Stevens cruised through to the last 16 with a 5-1 defeat of Mark King.