SNOOKER / World Championships: Ronnie O'Sullivan seized the initiative in the opening session of his Embassy World Championship semi-final with Stephen Hendry as he galloped into a 6-2 lead in the best-of-33-frame encounter.

O'Sullivan started in confident fashion after Hendry had failed to cut a pink into the black pocket, and a break of 85 to the final yellow won him the opening frame in only 10 minutes.

Hendry took the next, but in the third missed a long red to let O'Sullivan in for a useful 33, and he gleaned another break of 47 to restore his advantage.

An error-strewn final session before the break went to O'Sullivan, and he stretched further away after the interval; a 127 clearance to the pink gave him the fourth, and a confident 67 opener forced Hendry to concede the fifth. O'Sullivan kept on scoring with a 98 in the next.

It was vital for the Hendry to stop the rot in the final frame, and he was on for a 147 maximum after potting 11 reds and 10 blacks. But then he snookered himself on the black and had to be content with trimming O'Sullivan's lead to four frames.

In the other semi-final Graeme Dott opened up a 5-3 lead over Matthew Stevens.

Dott cleared the colours to win the opener, and doubled his lead with a clearance of 76. After Stevens had opened his account in the third, Dott restored his two-frame advantage via a decisive opening run of 61.

Stevens came back to make it 3-2, but Dott showed composure in a long sixth, forcing Stevens to concede after failing to escape from a series of snookers.

Stevens came to within a frame with a 115, but Dott re-established the two-frame margin in a scrappy final frame.