Ronnie O’Sullivan eased to the brink of a record-extending 23rd World Snooker Championship quarter-final after making short work of opponent Pang Junxu in the second session of their second-round match at the Crucible.
O’Sullivan was seldom required to reach top gear as he turned a 6-2 overnight lead into a 12-4 advantage, which leaves him requiring just one more frame on Monday evening to confirm his return to the last eight.
Playing in his first tournament since January, the seven-times champion often looked far from happy with his form, but still fired back-to-back centuries en route to establishing a seemingly unassailable lead over his outclassed 25-year-old opponent.
Pang had briefly stirred, winning the first two frames upon the resumption and fleetingly threatening to launch a comeback to match his recovery in their first round meeting in 2023, when he hit back from 9-4 down to win three frames in a row.
But frequent errors would cost the Chinese player any chance of making any further impression, and O’Sullivan swiftly restored his four-frame advantage with successive half-centuries to go in 8-4 in front at the mid-session interval.
Looking increasingly ill at ease, Pang failed to muster a point in the next two frames, as a back-to-back hundreds too O’Sullivan further clear, and taking the next two made Monday’s final session a formality.
Monday evening’s ticket holders can expect to be short-changed as former champion Luca Brecel will also come back requiring a single frame to complete a comprehensive win over Ding Junhui.
The Belgian had looked certain to clinch the match with a session to spare after reeling off 11 frames in a row after former champion Ding had opened proceedings in their first session on Saturday with a break of 141.
Ding finally stopped the rot in frame 13 and after Brecel moved further clear at 12-2, Ding then summoned successive centuries out of nothing, to pull back to 12-4 and require Brecel – who had jetted in for Saturday’s first session by private jet – to hang around for a final session.
Judd Trump shrugged off a slow start to establish a 5-3 lead over Shaun Murphy by the end of the first session of their eagerly-awaited second round clash.
Trump had initially looked out of sorts against his fellow former champion before recovering to claim the initiative ahead of the resumption of their best-of-25 frames match-up on Sunday evening.
Murphy opened with a break of 75 and doubled his advantage before Trump belatedly stirred and ensured the match was all square the mid-session interval.
A break of 103 in the next frame swung the momentum back in Murphy’s favour but Trump turned on the style to take the next three in succession.
Trump looked set to post his 99th century of the season in the final frame of the session, only to miss a difficult yellow down the side cushion when his break stood at 98.
Trump has compiled 98 century breaks so far this season and will pocket a £100,000 bonus if he reaches the 100-mark before the end of the tournament.
Zhao Xintong reached the quarter-finals for the first time after completing a 13-10 win over his Chinese compatriot Lei Peifan.
Zhao withstood a late surge from his opponent, the first-round conqueror of defending champion Kyren Wilson, who won three straight frames after Zhao had moved within one of victory at 12-7.
The former UK champion, who recently returned after serving a 20-month ban for involvement in a betting scandal, will face fellow qualifier Chris Wakelin in the last eight.
