World Championship, day four: Rocket Ronnie eases pass Ebdon, Higginson records first Crucible win

After the fourth day of the cue battles that are taking place here in the Crucible arena, Ronnie O’Sullivan won comfortably by 10-4 over Peter Ebdon, while qualifier Andrew Higginson obtained his first victory at the World Championship by beating Stephen Lee 10-6.

The clash of styles between Ronnie O’Sullivan and Peter Ebdon ended with O’Sullivan booking spot in the next round after he undoubtedly dominated the entire match.

Although O’Sullivan’s form wasn’t the best it was enough to get him a 7-2 lead at the end of the first session, a lead that was sustained by breaks of 103, 50, 43, 43 and 81. E

bdon, who had trouble settling in from the very first start, managed to pull back two frames during the last session, but the comeback didn’t happen, with “Rocket” Ronnie ending his misery with runs of 80, 68 and 54.

More equilibrated was the match between Stephen Lee and Andrew Higginson, which looked like it could go all the way until the last frame, if were to take the first session into account.

It ended on a 5-4 scoreline in favour of Higginson, and was a sharing-frames-affair with the players taking their turns on who wins the next one.

However as they returned into the arena, Andrew forced his way into a two-frame lead, leaving Lee behind.

Although “The Bulldog” tried to catch up with his green baize rival, each time he was pulling back a frame, the PTC 5 champion was winning the next one to restore the two-point advantage.

From 7-6 Higginson practically cruised towards victory, breaks of 111, 51 and 61 winning him the first Crucible match and also securing a place in the next round where he will meet with another qualifier, Jamie Jones.

Ramona Dragomir