O’Sullivan misses chance to turn up heat on Selby

RONNIE O’SULLIVAN missed his chance to turn up the heat on Mark Selby as the humidity threatened to wreak havoc in the first session of their World Championship semi-final.

O’Sullivan complained about the worst kicks of his career after an errorstrewn start to the session, which the Rocket eventually had to settle for edging 5-3 despite dominating Selby.

After both players suffered a series of bad cue ball contacts in the third frame, O’Sullivan told referee Paul Collier: “I’ve never had kicks like that before in my life.”

Tournament officials took the unusual step of changing the balls during the mid-session interval and the kicks appeared to subside, with O’Sullivan fashioning an overnight advantage which ought to have been much more comprehensive.

A World Snooker Tour spokesman confirmed that “humidity is bound to be a factor”, but pointed out that kicks have been “dramatically reduced” in recent years following the introduction of an anti-static cloth.

O’Sullivan had been the first to suffer in the opening frame when a bad contact on a black brought his break of 59 to an end, although a brilliant long red belatedly helped him nudge ahead.

Both players made uncharacteristic errors in the following frame, with Selby’s proving the most costly when he caught a red on the lip of the pocket on a break of 39, and some fine longpotting from O’Sullivan helped him extend his lead. Selby held on to win a near-farcical third frame.

O’Sullivan went 3-1 up with a break of 85 before the interval, and while the kicks proved negligible upon the resumption, the error-strewn action continued as Selby missed the simplest of greens to help sweep O’Sullivan into a 4-1 lead.

But Selby responded in combative fashion by winning a sixth frame. O’Sullivan fired a break of 58 to go 5-2 ahead but Selby clawed his way back from a 51-point deficit in the final frame of the evening to finish a largely forgettable session 5-3 behind.

Earlier, Anthony McGill moved closer to a first final by opening up a 6-2 lead against eighth seed Kyren Wilson.

Wilson was almost unrecognisable from the player who polished off defending champion Judd Trump on Tuesday as a series of missed pots and safety errors gifted McGill the chance to continue his dream run ahead of this morning’s resumption.