World Championship Day Eleven Round up

Day eleven at the championship heralded the beginning of the quarter finals and was most notable for the one sided nature of all the contests

We'll start with the Ronnie O'Sullivan v Ding Junhui match and here "The Rockets"quest for a sixth world title is in real danger of coming unstuck against an opponent who seems to have finally found his Crucible groove.

The first session of this was played this morning and Ding was quick out the blocks with a century & two breaks of 70 plus to lead 3-0.Then a sea change as back came O'Sullivan to level at 3-3 before the last two were shared to leave it 4-4.

The general consensus at this stage was that Ronnie had weathered the storm and would pull away tonight,but although the first two were shared again,making it 5-5 ,it was Ding who started to score heavily again & a visibly under pressure O'Sullivan was struggling to find any answer as the Chinese moved 10-5 ahead.

Belatedly Ronnie did manage to get the last of the session with a run of 104,but at 10-6 down will need an almost perfect session tomorrow if he is to avoid defeat.

If Ronnie task from 10-6 down is difficult,then Kyren Wilsons one from 11-5 down must be nye on impossible,especially against a John Higgins playing as well as he is.

You have to feel a little for Kyren here though as with the scores tied at 3-3 he suffered some tip damage & subsequently lost the next two frames to trail 5-3 going into tonight. Here he never really got going as Higgins turned the screw and barring a miracle,this one might not last for very long when they play to a finish in the morning.

Also going into tomorrow with a commanding lead is Mark Selby,who made sure he exploited any tiredness Marco Fu may have been feeling after last nights heroics,flying out the gate, to take an early 5-0 lead this afternoon

Fu to his credit took the next two & could have taken the last of the session as well,but it eventually went to Selby to leave the defending champ with a healthy 6-2 overnight lead.

In the other match with only the one session played,Barry Hawkins leads Stephen Maguire 5-3.Hawkins had gotten the better of the early exchanges here to lead 5-1,but in a potential turning point in the next Maguire got the couple of snookers he required to take it on the black,before also adding the last of the session to trail by just two overnight.

All four of these matches play to a finish tomorrow,so by this time tomorrow night we'll be down to just four remaining in the tournament and with the venue then reverting to the single table set up, its then the fun really begin!