Five-time winner Ronnie O’Sullivan opened up a 10-7 lead over Kyren Wilson in the best-of-35 frame world snooker final on Saturday.
However, Wilson
will be pleased with his efforts in the second session after coming back from
6-2 down.
For O’Sullivan, the
pattern of play on Saturday evening echoed his only Crucible final loss, when
he was beaten by Mark Selby in 2014 having held 8-3 and 10-5 leads.
The 44-year-old
Englishman, appearing in his first world final since that defeat six years ago,
did not have to be at his best to forge clear in a scrappy opening session.
Both players had to
get accustomed to having around 300 spectators in the Crucible Theatre
auditorium.
Playing without
fans earlier in the tournament had been described by O’Sullivan as like competing
“in a morgue”.
They could attend
after the British Government revived their pilot scheme for selected sports
events to have spectators, conditional on social distancing due to the
coronavirus pandemic.
The championships
had been due to have spectators throughout the fortnight but the government
abruptly halted the experiment after the first day due to an upsurge in
infections nationwide.
World number eight
Wilson, perhaps feeling the effects of his nerve-jangling 17-16 semi-final win
over Anthony McGill where the final frame lasted over an hour, never achieved
any sort of fluency in what is his first world final.
O’Sullivan, who
also won his semi-final with Selby 17-16, did manage the sole century break of
the contest and put together three others of over 50 points.
Despite there still
being a projected three sessions to go, seven-time champion Stephen Hendry said
it was game over.
“The match is over
as a contest,” he told the BBC.
“I hope I am wrong
because I want it to be a contest but 6-2 is too much for Wilson to come back
from.
“He looked uptight
and it looked like it almost meant too much, he needs to chill out.”
The final concludes
on Sunday.
