Reigning champion, Ronnie O’Sullivan, cantered his way to a massive six-frame lead over World Snooker Championship quarter-final opponent Stuart Bingham in the first session of their clash at the Crucible.
The Rocket wasted no time in asserting his dominance in this fixture as he took the first frame in a matter of minutes leaving Bingham with no real opportunity to slow him down.
Breaks of 79, 111, 87, 133 and 87 were the focal point of a session that saw the four-time World Champion from Essex take the first seven frames in a matter of hours and remind everyone why he is the favourite to win his fifth world title this year at the Crucible.
O’Sullivan is currently ranked 28th in the world having taking eleven months out of the game prior to this tournament after refusing to make a commitment to the sport but it looks like he’s been making plenty of a commitment to the practice tables in his months away from the spotlight as his positional play and potting were superb throughout.
Bingham didn’t really give O’Sullivan much of a test in this session but that was all down to the form of O’Sullivan as the Rocket was even phenomenal from long-range, maintaining a 100% long-pot success rate for a large chunk of the session, rendering Bingham’s often exceptional safety play useless.
The second session will take place tomorrow morning as Ronnie will need to win six of the eight frames in the session to finish the match with a session to spare.