O'Sullivan stays on course for another world title

Ronnie O'Sullivan maintained his charge towards a third successiveWorld Championship title as he established a 6-2 lead over Barry Hawkins in the firstsession of their semi-final on Thursday.O'Sullivan has been in fine form during his pursuit of a sixth world crown of hiscareer since coming from behind to defeat Joe Perry in the second round atSheffield's Crucible Theatre.O'Sullivan swept past Shaun Murphy, himself a former world champion, in thequarter-finals with a session to spare and, in a repeat of last year's final, wastedlittle time in establishing a four-frame lead in the best of 33 contest.He took the first of the semi-final with a break of 63 before Hawkins levelled with acontribution of 96 and briefly went ahead with a break of 76.But it was one-way traffic from then on, Hawkins's mistakes and O'Sullivan's skillseeing the champion, who made a break of 108 in the seventh frame before a missedred from his opponent let him take the next, pull ahead.The second semi-final is an Anglo-Australian clash between Mark Selby andMelbourne-born Neil Robertson, the 2010 world champion, who in his quarter-finalwin over Judd Trump became the first player to make 100 competitive centurybreaks in a tour season. Source: AFP