Ronnie O’Sullivan established a commanding 6-2 lead over John Higgins after the first session of their second-round match at the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield. The seven-time champion produced a stunning 137 total clearance as he dominated his long-time rival, moving closer to a record eighth Crucible title.
Former champion John Parrott, now a BBC pundit, praised O’Sullivan’s performance, describing him as “pretty evil” and the better player. O’Sullivan started with a break of 86, but a missed pink in the second frame allowed Higgins to level. However, the Scot was then largely sidelined as O’Sullivan fired breaks of 82, 137, and 92 in consecutive frames.
Higgins managed to take the sixth frame at his second attempt, but O’Sullivan won the final two frames of the session to seize control ahead of Sunday evening’s resumption. Elsewhere, Mark Allen defeated Kyren Wilson 13-9 to reach the quarter-finals, despite having led 5-0 earlier in the match. Allen will face Barry Hawkins, who beat Mark Williams 13-9.
After his victory, Allen launched a verbal attack on seven-time champion Stephen Hendry, accusing him of “talking rubbish” over criticism of his shot selection. In other matches, Hossein Vafaei fought back to level 4-4 with world No. 1 Judd Trump, while defending champion Zhao Xintong leads Ding Junhui 9-7 ahead of the final session.
