O’sullivan rubs salt in wounds

Ronnie O’sullivan took command of his World Championship semi-final against John Higgins in ruthless fashion at the Crucible.

O’sullivan made breaks of 99, 91, 70 and 73 to open up a 10-6 lead, but it was the manner in which he won the last frame of yesterday’s afternoon session on a respotted black that will have hurt his opponent the most.

Higgins looked set to limit the damage – and make his highest break of the match – only to miss a black off the spot that would have left O’sullivan needing a snooker.

The six-time champion produced a stunning positional shot to get on the black from the penultimate red and a 43 clearance levelled the scores at 58-58.

Higgins had earlier taken two of the first three frames of the day to lead 6-5, but O’sullivan kicked off a winning run of five frames in a row with a break of 99.

Earlier in the day, Judd Trump remained in the box seat in his semifinal against Welshman Mark Williams.

Trump established a 7-1 lead after the opening session, but the pair evenly split the eight frames on offer yesterday morning.

Williams ended the second session with a break of 70 but that merely kept the deficit to six frames, as Trump held the upper hand to lead 11-5 before they resumed in the evening.

After each won a frame following the mid-session interval, Williams looked on course to eat into the deficit after a break of 52 only to miss a tricky red to the bottom right corner pocket.

Trump produced a terrific 79 clearance to go 11-4 up but a double on the red was the start of Williams’ break of 70 as he ended this session with a flourish.