Snooker: Ding eyes semi-final after dominating O'Sullivan
Ding Junhui leads Ronnie O'Sullivan 10-6 in their World Championship quarter-final.
SHEFFIELD (AFP) - World number four Ding Junhui took control in the second session against Ronnie O Sullivan Tuesday to lead 10-6 in their World Championship quarter-final.
The China number one, losing finalist at Sheffield s Crucible venue to Mark Selby last year, rattled off five frames in a row from 5-5 including a century clearance against the five-time world champion from England.
But O Sullivan managed to hit back with a quick-fire century in the final frame of the evening to give himself some hope going into Wednesday s final afternoon session in the best-of-25 frame match.
Ding needs just three more frames of the possible nine to be played to reach his second successive semi-final while O Sullivan has it all to do as he needs to win seven.
It was a high-quality encounter with a break of at least 50 in every frame in the morning session and that astonishing standard was repeated in the evening.
Ding, 30, has not beaten world number 12 O Sullivan in a ranking event since 2006 but looks as if he could end the hoodoo and prevent the Englishman equalling Stephen Hendry s record of 12 Crucible semi-finals.
Ding had a 63 clearance to go 5-4 ahead which O Sullivan matched to level.
Ding then fired in breaks of breaks of 64, 65, 120, 59 and 56 to go 10-5 up before O Sullivan responded with a typically brisk 104.
In the morning session, Ding had raced into a 3-0 lead before O Sullivan took the next three and they resumed in the evening locked at 4-4.
Ding won the opening frame courtesy of a 71 break and then followed that up with a magnificent 128 clearance.
Another run of 71 put him further ahead with O Sullivan barely getting to the table.
But the 41-year-old hit back with a breaks of 63, 99 and 65 to level at 3-3.
Ding edged the next via a tense respotted black after the frame had finished tied, but O Sullivan restored parity with a run of 59.
In the day s other quarter-finals, four-time world champion John Higgins was in complete control at 11-5 ahead of Kyren Wilson.
Hong Kong s eighth-ranked Marco Fu, another bidding to become Asia s first men s world champion, trails title-holder Selby 6-2 in their quarter-final.
And Barry Hawkins leads Stephen Maguire 5-3 after their opening session.
