O’Sullivan in control of quarter-final against Si

In their opening match of the World Championship quarter-final, Ronnie O’Sullivan, a seven-time champion, jumped to a commanding 6-2 lead over Si Jiahui.

O’Sullivan, who is competing for a record eighth title in the modern era, opened with a sluggish opener before Si took a wonderful century break.

The 22-year-old from China uncharacteristically missed a number of pots, allowing “The Rocket” to win 4-1 with three half-centuries.

Another miss, on a black on its spot, cost as O’Sullivan pinched the seventh frame, while Si responded with a 60 of his own to fend off his arrears for good.

The Englishman’s stylish 121 break, which highlighted his superiority, completed the session.

Judd Trump put together his 101st and 102nd century breaks of the season to go 5-3 up against Luca Brecel in Tuesday’s other last-eight match.

Trump, the world’s number one, is only one away from breaking the record set by Neil Robertson in 2013-14, which included 103 century breaks in a single campaign.

However, Belgium’s Brecel, who won in Sheffield two years ago, fought back with breaks of 68 and 128 to give the match a delicately poised start. Trump had a 5-1 lead.

Since Steve Davis did it at the age of 52 in 2010, when Williams, 50, reached the final eight of the famous Sheffield venue, while Higgins turns 50 on May 18, a 13-day period following this tournament’s final.

Both men were introduced to the audience, and both men were given a fantastic standing ovation before playing some premium snooker.

Higgins was in control after a 69-foot break, but Williams should have leveled before the Scots, who had a 65-foot break, took the frame.

The Welshman’s first frame was a 72-pound effort, but he missed a brown in the fourth frame, which cost him as Higgins only managed to get three frames in a row.

Higgins would have wanted to extend his lead by 5-1, but Williams did well with breaks of 104 and 59.

China’s Zhao Xintong won the other match of the morning session to advance to the quarter-finals against Chris Wakelin.

The Englishman defeated former world number one Mark Allen in the final 16 of the main competition, defeating 2010 world champion Neil Robertson in the opening round, and then made it through two rounds of qualifying to the Crucible.

After making a break of 93 to start the frame, Zhao, a 28, won six games in a row, even though Wakelin led 6-2 as the match ended at 19:00 BST.

One of ten Chinese players who was banned as a result of a match-fixing scandal was Zhao, a former UK Championship champion.

He accepted the accusations of being a party to another player who had already fixed two matches and had himself bet on matches without actually playing a match. Only one of the ten players sanctioned by the scandal to have returned to action, serving a 20-month ban for those offenses.

He was removed from the World Snooker Tour as a result of the suspension, but he has already made arrangements to return to the tour full-time next year.