Impressive start by Ronnie O'Sullivan as he registers a 10-4 win over Marcus Campbell
Ronnie O'Sullivan began his World Championship title defence in style as he registered a 10-4 win over Marcus Campbell.
Last Updated: 20/04/13 9:54pm
The 37-year-old showed a little rust but he could afford that against an opponent who seemed to freeze in the spotlight.
O'Sullivan led 7-2 after the opening session and returned on Saturday evening with breaks of 102 and 90 to secure his progress.
Despite arriving in Sheffield with no match preparation under his belt, the four-time world champion was proved too strong for Campbell.
The Rocket hit breaks of 82, 62, 71, 85, 86 and 58 but didn't have it all his own way, with Campbell holding commanding leads in the third, fourth and fifth frames, only to lose all three.
O'Sullivan clinched the first frame but lost the second from 49-0 ahead as Campbell levelled, but the 40-year-old then began to make a habit of wasting substantial leads himself.
Runs of 26 and 25 moved Campbell nicely in front in the third but O'Sullivan pinched it with his run to 62.
O'Sullivan was 59-0 adrift in frame four but the 71 left Campbell grimacing in his seat, and he pinched the next on the colours before steaming four frames clear after Campbell failed to make a plant.
The Scot closed the gap with breaks of 54 and 41 in frame seven, but O'Sullivan's 86 showed who was in charge and he finished the session with a sixth half-century break to ensure the scoreline was heavily weighted in his favour when they resumed.
Any slim hopes Campbell carried into the evening were wiped out inside half an hour as O'Sullivan piled on the misery with his two biggest breaks of the match.
A fluked green helped Campbell make it 9-3 and he clawed his way back to 9-4 to force an interval, but there the recovery ended.
An audacious plant helped O'Sullivan stay at the table to make 40 in the 14th
frame.
Campbell showed a further flicker of fight but frame and match were soon over.
Elsewhere, Jack Lisowski's Crucible debut proved anticlimactic as the 21-year-old hot prospect fell 6-3 behind against Kent's Barry Hawkins.
World number four Shaun Murphy ran into early trouble against qualifier Martin
Gould before the 2005 champion dug himself out of trouble to lead 5-4 overnight. They play to a finish on Sunday evening.
Chester's Ricky Walden made a break of 140, making him the early frontrunner
for the £10,000 top-break prize, in building an 8-1 lead over Nottingham's
Michael Holt. They resume on Sunday morning.
