Ruthless O’sullivan nicks final frame of session to open up sizeable semi-final lead over Higgins

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

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 thesessiononarespottedblack which will have hurt Higgins the most.

Higgins looked set to limit the damage – and make his highest break of the match into the bargain–onlytomissablackoff the spot which would have left O'sullivan needing a snooker.

The six-time champion produced a stunning positional shottogetontheblackfromthe penultimate red and a 43 clearance tied the scores at 58-58.

O'sullivan’s attempt to double the respotted black left Higgins withadifficultpotintothegreen pocket which the 46-year-old Scot was unable to convert, the black running down the table to leave O’sullivan a simple pot into the middle.

Higgins had earlier taken two of the first three frames of the day to lead 6-5, but O’sullivan kickedoffarunoffiveframesin a row with a break of 99, despite having to ask referee Marcel

Eckardt to remind spectators in the front few rows to sit still.

Earlierintheday,juddtrump remained in the box seat in his semi-final against Mark Williams, despite the Welshman’s attempts to fight back.

Trump established a 7-1 lead aftertheopeningsessionaswilliams struggled to find any sort of fluency, but the pair evenly split the eight frames on offer yesterday morning.

Williams ended the second session with a scintillating 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 last night.

Williams was perhaps still feeling the exertions of his win over Yan Bingtao in the previous round after a sluggish start against Trump, but he began positivelyinthesecondsession.

However, after reducing the arrears in the opening frame, he watched on helplessly as Trump rattled off breaks of 114 and 100 to go 9-2 up before Williams knocked in a 119 break.

After each winning 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.

Trump produced a terrific 79 clearance to go 11-4 up, before Williams’ 70.