O’Sullivan races to big lead over opening rival

Ronnie O’Sullivan required just one hour and 22 minutes to establish an 8-1 overnight lead against Thailand’s Thepchaiya Un-Nooh as their eagerly-anticipated World Championship first-round clash turned into a one-man rampage.

The match between the two fastest players on the circuit saw O’Sullivan begin his campaign by blasting seven breaks over 50, including two centuries, and record an average shot-time for the session of just 13.41 seconds.

If it was the kind of display that would ordinarily have brought a packed crowd to its feet, it was instead greeted with bursts of canned crowd noise to mark centuries and frame wins, and which initially appeared to bewilder the five-time world champion.

But otherwise O’Sullivan issued nothing but steely resolve as he set about blitzing his shell-shocked opponent, who was guilty of gifting him a series of gilt-edged chances which the favourite would ruthlessly exploit.

John Higgins expressed his support for the crowd experiment after converting a 6-3 overnight lead over former finalist Matthew Stevens into a 10-5 success.

The four-times former winner said he would support it being extended to acknowledge good shots after likening the opening session of his match on Saturday – which was played in relative silence – as “like going to mass”.

Higgins added: “It was a lot better having some atmosphere in there. I don’t know if it would be feasible to have someone pressing a button if you play a good shot, but it would have to be someone who was pretty knowledgeable.

“I still feel the pressure out there – it’s still the Crucible you’re playing in.”

Stevens had started the second session in style with a break of 138 but missed a big chance to pull back to 8-6 when he missed a simple black, and allowed Higgins to get the snooker required to go on to win the frame and ultimately the match.

Chinese 16th seed Yan Bingtao moved close to sealing a secondround clash with Judd Trump has he built a 7-1 overnight lead against qualifier Elliot Slessor.

Neil Robertson completed a 10-5 win over Liang Wenbo to join fellow former winners Stuart Bingham and Mark Williams in round two.

Williams, a three-time winner at the Crucible, reeled off six straight frames to see off Scotland’s Alan McManus 10-5.

Bingham, champion in 2015, clinched a 10-7 win over fellow Englishman Ashley Carty while 2016 finalist Ding Junhui edged out Mark King 10-9.