Tournament favorite Ronnie O'Sullivan established a commanding
seven-frame lead over Chinese ace Ding Junhui in yesterday's
eagerly-awaited first-round clash at the snooker World
Championship.
O'Sullivan blew away Ding as he powered to within two frames of
a place in the next round by establishing a deserved 8-1 lead at
Sheffield's famous Crucible Theatre.
This year's Masters champion continued where he left off when he
beat the 20-year-old 10-3 at the Wembley Arena in January.
Chigwell's finest rattled in breaks of 58, 50, 48, 109, 60, 63, 63,
70 and 45 to leave debutant Ding staring defeat full in the
face.
This year's Northern Ireland Trophy winner did reduce his
arrears to 5-1 with a superb 103 break, but O'Sullivan wasted
little time in reeling off the final three frames of the session to
put himself in control of the pair's best-of-19 frame match.
The duo resume their match Monday afternoon and, unless Ding can
produce some of the snooker which saw him beat O'Sullivan 9-6 in
the Northern Ireland Trophy final in August, then two-time Crucible
king O'Sullivan looks almost certain to reach the next phase.
Last year's runner-up Peter Ebdon requires just one frame to
secure his place in the second round but the 2002 champion must
wait until tonight to conclude his first round match with Nigel
Bond, with their match postponed because it was in danger of
delaying the afternoon session.
Ebdon trailed 5-4 overnight to Bond after his opponent reeled
off five frames on the bounce having been 4-0 down. But the
Dubai-based potter hit back Sunday in the pair's second session,
edging 9-7 ahead and within touching distance of a place in the
second phase.
In the other morning session match, Dubliner Fergal O'Brien and
Dartford's Barry Hawkins were deadlocked at 4-4. Left-hander
Hawkins, a former Grand Prix semi-finalist, led 2-0, the highlight
of which was a 58 break, before qualifier O'Brien reduced his
arrears by pinching the third frame on points 58-57.
Hawkins won the next despite a break of 47 from O'Brien, before
his opponent won the next two, pocketing a 66 break in the sixth
frame to make it 3-3.
The seventh frame lasted more than half an hour, but Hawkins won
it on points 79-46 by potting the final blue ball, only for
Irishman O'Brien to win the final frame of the session thanks to a
break of 63.
The duo should have completed nine frames, but their match was
also pulled off early as organisers feared a clash with the start
of O'Sullivan against Ding and veterans Steve Davis and John
Parrott.
(China Daily via timesonline.co.uk April 23, 2007)
