WORLD SNOOKER: Ronnie O'Sullivan, defending his title, injected a whiff of animosity into his semi-final of the World Championship against Stephen Hendry before taking a 5-3 overnight lead yesterday from the first of their four sessions at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
O'Sullivan's opening 115 put him a frame ahead for the first of four times before he secured his two-frame advantage with a run of 99 in the last of the day.
As this pattern of scoring indicates, Hendry was on the back foot for most of the session and he almost threw away the fourth frame when he missed a simple red on 65. In turn O'Sullivan, on 63, lost position for the last black and left it in the jaws of a corner pocket.
The seven times champion's attempt to do too much with an intended safety shot cost him the seventh to O'Sullivan's 63 in which, as in the eighth, he did not score.
O'Sullivan had raised the emotional temperature for the occasion by declaring after his 13-10 quarter-final win over Stephen Lee on Wednesday night that he had "no respect" for Hendry. The pretext for O'Sullivan's remark was their semi-final three years ago when the referee awarded a miss that O'Sullivan felt Hendry should not have accepted.
No such incident has stood out in anybody else's mind. In any case it seems disproportionate that O'Sullivan could harbour a grudge for so long because a referee awarded a penalty which Hendry saw no reason not to benefit from.
Like most players on the circuit Hendry has a highly developed sense of fair play, never more strikingly demonstrated than in his 1994 world final against Jimmy White when he was awarded a free ball but asked the referee to check it because he did not want an incorrect decision, however marginal, to disadvantage his opponent.
In last night's second semi-final, Peter Ebdon played his typical gritty game to take a 5-3 lead over Matthew Stevens. Ebdon rarely created the opening chance, but took advantage of Stevens' lapses to steal frames five, seven and eight.
Ebdon started the slower, losing three of the first four frames to an opponent bristling with confidence after crushing John Higgins in the previous round.
SEMI-FINALS
R O'Sullivan (Eng) leads S Hendry (Scot) 5-3: Frame scores: O'Sullivan first - 115-7, 33-67, 65-13, 63-72, 97-25, 8-116 (73), 83-0 (63), 99-0 (99).
(6) M Stevens (Wal) leads (7) P Ebdon (Eng) 5-3: Frame scores: Stevens first - 123-12 (84), 7-80, 71-33, 73-23 (73), 62-71, 3-108 (81), 63-65, 46-79 (79).
