Ding Junhui takes command against Ronnie O'Sullivan at the Crucible
Wednesday 26 April 2017 16:17, UK
Ding Junhui produced a sparkling display at the Crucible to lead Ronnie O'Sullivan 10-6 in their Betfred World Championship quarter-final.
Every frame of the morning saw a break of 50 or more, Ding taking a 3-0 lead before O'Sullivan levelled the session at 4-4, but the Chinese player pulled ahead in the evening session.
Ding took frame one with a 71 break and followed that up with a magnificent 128 clearance to double his advantage. It got better for the world No 4 as another run of 71 put him further ahead, with O'Sullivan barely getting to the
table.
But the 41-year-old hit back with a 63 to finally get on the scoreboard before the mid-session interval and took the next two after the restart with runs of 99 and 65 to level the match.
Ding scraped the next on a re-spotted black despite a 69 break from the five-time champion, who finished off with a run of 59 to restore parity.
The pattern continued into the evening as Ding returned with a frame-winning 63 clearance in frame nine.
O'Sullivan came from behind to win the next but was unable to repeat the dose in frame 11 after over-running a positional shot to the black.
Ding took that one and made it 7-5 at the interval. He then resumed with a 120 break and went on to stretch his lead to 10-5 with a 58 in frame 15.
O'Sullivan, though, produced a defiant rapid-fire 104 in the final frame to give himself a chance.
Elsewhere, John Higgins takes a commanding 11-5 lead over Kyren Wilson into tomorrow's third session after winning six of the eight frames on offer during the evening's play.
In the afternoon session, reigning champion Mark Selby moved closer to a place in the semi-finals after storming to a dominant 6-2 lead over Marco Fu in Sheffield.
On the other table, Barry Hawkins took a 5-3 lead against Stephen Maguire, who would have been relieved to win the last two frames of the session and stay in touch.
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