Six-time winner Stephen Hendry kept his nose 9-7 in front last night, but not before a stunning surge from Ronnie O'Sullivan ensured a tight finish to today's World Championship semi-final.
While the unpredictable O'Sullivan (23) raised the quality of his play to an awesome level in the early stages of the match, the unflappable Hendry doggedly promoted his hopes of a record seventh win as the match wore on.
O'Sullivan reached his swashbuckling best in the first half of yesterday's session. Superb century breaks of 122 and 135, following a combined first frame tally of 20 and 60, had Hendry reduced to a spectator for 382 consecutive points in much the same fashion as the six-time champion had O'Sullivan glued to his seat in the first three games. But it was the manner of O'Sullivan's four-frame run that sent his supporters into sporadic outbursts.
Driving a difficult angled brown into the middle pocket in the 11th frame at a pace even Alex Higgins would have been proud of illustrated a certain audacity creeping into O'Sullivan's mood. And with that he thrived, drawing level 6-6.
The unblinking Hendry typically weathered the storm and came back after the short interlude to peg back O'Sullivan's charge. Desperate to reach his first ever Crucible final, having lost 179 last year in the semi-final to this year's bookies' favourite John Higgins, O'Sullivan subsequently surrendered the next frame before again coming back to 7-7.
Hendry, probably more considered and the better scrapper of the two, expertly took the next two frames to firmly hold the lead. Play was held up for 25 minutes in the morning session when water began to drip onto the table as reigning champion John Higgins was rifling his way to his second century of the match against Mark Williams.
Condensation was to blame for the delay as organisers thanked their luck that no oil from the BBC's overhead camera had come into contact with the water. The delay hardly broke the stride of either player, as both players again crafted hugh breaks in a top quality match to send it shooting towards a tense finish today.
Ending the first session toe to toe at 8-8, Williams with two century breaks and Higgins with three after 16 frames, there seemed little would separate the players. The evening session saw Williams, who put out Ken Doherty, take the initiative and surge to a significant overnight lead of 1410. Stringing together breaks of 75, 60, 90 and 71, the in-form Welshman now holds a commanding lead over the champion going into today's final eight frames.
Semi-Finals
S Hendry (Sco) leads R O'Sullivan (Eng) 9-7. Frame scores (Hendry first): 127-0 (126 break) 82-0 86-0 30-82 62-58 90-40 62-46 17-72 0-87 0122 (122 break) 0-135 (135 break) 24-67 73-16 781 78-30 78-1.
Match resumes 10.00am this morning.
M Williams (Wal) leads J Higgins (Sco) 1410 (Frame scores Williams first: 45-72 64-53 105 (104 break)-19 43-58 101(101 break)-1 0-132 (126 break) 73-39 92-0 34-60 0-104 (104 break) 88-0 61-62 67-15 51-78 0-127 (127 break) 70-1 75-0 89-0 64-28 90-0 32-68 83-27 70-54 1-71
Match resumes 2:30pm this afternoon.
