SHEFFIELD, 1 May 2004 — Ronnie O’Sullivan is on the verge of his second World Championship final after storming to a 13-3 lead over Stephen Hendry yesterday.
The Rocket, winner in 2001, demolished the seven times champion 7-1 with a barrage of breaks in their second session, adding to his 6-2 first session advantage from Thursday.
That leaves him just four frames from victory and a place in tomorrow’s final. O’Sullivan was in breathtaking form, as he has been for most of the tournament, as he stretched his overnight four-frame lead to 10-2 in under an hour.
Hendry, looking totally out of sorts and powerless to stop the onslaught, made one mistake in each frame before the interval and O’Sullivan punished him with breaks of 81, 92, 52 and 117, his 12th century of the tournament.
It was a similar story after the interval as O’Sullivan cleared up with 56 after Hendry missed a brown to the middle pocket.
The world No. 3, who made six breaks over 50 in the eight frames, opened up a 10-frame lead with a break of 58 and made it 13-2 thanks to his initial 63.
Hendry stopped the rot, and a session whitewash, by winning the last frame of the afternoon but, even by his standards, has a mountain to climb today.
In the other semifinal outsider Graeme Dott is threatening to upset the odds and reach his first world final. The Scot, nicknamed the Pocket Dynamo, leads Matthew Stevens 9-7 at the same stage of their encounter.
Stevens, a finalist here in 2000, won the first two frames of yesterday’s afternoon session to level at 5-5 but Dott restored his two-frame lead as he moved 7-5 ahead at the interval.
He looked set for a 9-5 advantage but wobbled the final black and the Welshman sank it to trail 8-6.
The last two frames of the session were shared.
