O’Sullivan into second round at the Crucible

Former champion Ronnie O’Sullivan completed an impressive first round performance at the World Championships yesterday by beating Dominic Dale of Wales 10-2.

Despite his recent threat to pull out of the tournament due to lack of motivation, the three-time former winner swept through taking the three remaining frames he required with high breaks.

He was helped throughout the match by Welshman Dale leaving him plenty of easy starting reds, and nobody is more ruthless than O’Sullivan when given half a chance.

The 35-year-old twice threatened maximum breaks on Monday, and did secure his 100th career Crucible century in frame eight, as Dale’s early challenge faded.

There could hardly have been an easier first match of the championship for O’Sullivan, as Dale underperformed and failed to make it a real contest.

Victory was O’Sullivan’s first in a ranking event since September, when he reached the World Open final, and halts a run of four straight first-round defeats in major events.

In other action, Marco Fu was well on course to exact revenge on England’s Martin Gould for a defeat in last year’s first round.

The Hong Kong star opened up a 6-3 lead in the re-match, dominating the opening session of their first-round match as the pair battled it out for the right to meet Judd Trump.

Trump ousted holder Neil Robertson, of Australia, in the opening match of the championships.

Fu had breaks of 70, 97, 81, 63, 115 and 56 as he surged ahead.

He built up a 4-1 lead, with Gould’s only frame at that stage coming thanks to an 80 break in the third frame.

Gould managed to haul himself back to 4-3 as the match turned scrappy, but then came Fu’s century, securing himself a lead to take into this morning’s concluding session, and he was on top in the final frame to secure a three-frame cushion.