O'Sullivan takes early Crucible lead

Snooker : Ronnie O'Sullivan stamped his authority on the opening session of the 888.com World Championship final with Ali Carter despite not being at his vintage best.

The Rocket won six of the eight frames against Carter in the best-of-35 showdown at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre.

A nervous looking Carter will regret failing to make the most of the unexpected opportunities that came his way against O'Sullivan, who is bidding for a third world crown.

O'Sullivan, already assured of regaining the world number one slot for next season, was 1-8 to triumph while Carter was a 5-1 shot to lift snooker's most coveted prize for the first time since turning professional 12 years ago.

If he triumphed after losing his previous eight meetings with former practice partner O'Sullivan, it would represent the biggest upset since 150-1 outsider Joe Johnson overcame the then supreme Steve Davis in the 1986 final.

O'Sullivan's vanquished semi-final opponent Stephen Hendry claimed he had been on the receiving end of "snooker perfection" when overwhelmed 17-6 with a session to spare.

And there has been an air of almost inevitability about proceedings during the past fortnight with O'Sullivan totally focused and scoring heavily when amongst the balls.

Carter is experiencing his first ranking final via a 17-15 success over Joe Perry last night but he insisted he would not run out of steam.

He also claimed to have the support of "two little angels on my shoulder" in a reference to his two grandmothers who recently died — snooker fans Daphne and Betty.

But Carter only had himself to blame for not winning the opening frame of the marathon spread over two days.

The 28-year-old from Tiptree broke down on 24 when he jumped the cue ball over a red he was attempting to pot into the black pocket.

Then after another run of 32 he was unfortunate when knocking in a blue to also send a red down. O'Sullivan made 38 before playing safe and then a superb last long red paved the way for him to make a 30 clearance and open his account.

The next was more straightforward with O'Sullivan knocking in 39 and 88 to double his lead. Then Carter failed to convert a long red in the third frame and O'Sullivan needed no second invitation with a 99 break.

Carter managed to stop the pre-interval whitewash when O'Sullivan was untypically wayward with a long pot on the red and was made to pay with a 104 - the 62nd century of the tournament.

An excellent safety shot forced an error from Carter after the resumption and O'Sullivan took advantage with a 74 to open up a three-frame advantage.

O'Sullivan looked set to take the next but when on a break of 40 he snookered himself on the final red and gave away 22 points before escaping, only for Carter to clear from brown to pink.

A scrappy seventh frame went O'Sullivan's way and an opening 47 in the last frame of the session paved the way for him to stretch his advantage.