World Championship snooker final: Ronnie O'Sullivan leads 10-7 against Kyren Wilson

O'Sullivan had been 8-2 clear against a struggling Kyren Wilson, who was all at sea early on in his maiden Crucible final and at risk of facing the ignominy of a thumping defeat.

But Wilson rallied during the evening session on Saturday and might have won each of the last seven frames, only to suffer a stroke of misfortune to lose one of them and then miss what was virtually frame ball in the last, handing it to his opponent.

O'Sullivan had looked desperate to get out of the arena and regroup but can now do so knowing he retains control of the tournament, with a three-frame lead heading into the final two sessions.

Highlights

Strong start for The Rocket

Perhaps unsurprisingly after both men were involved in epic semi-finals on what some have called snooker's greatest day, the standard on Saturday afternoon was not always high, but that only made O'Sullivan's advantage appear more significant as he won the first session 6-2.

Despite reportedly nursing a twisted ankle which he'd had in an ice bucket bucket prior to the match, O'Sullivan looked the more assured of the two and made his opponent pay at the key moments as both struggled to find their best early on.

It took just 10 minutes for O'Sullivan to take the opener, after Wilson's first attempt at a pot missed by more than it should have.

Briefly, a maximum break looked possible but O'Sullivan ran out of position, the first sign of the struggles he would endure throughout the three-hour session. Wilson though handed him a second easy starter and was this time punished, O'Sullivan settling for a break of 56.

More nerves were on display in the second, and O'Sullivan was as big a culprit as Wilson, first missing a simple red and then doing the same on the brown, which was frame ball. To his credit, Wilson capitalised, the black for the frame a seriously good pot in the circumstances as he got off the mark.

O'Sullivan took the third frame with a break of 80 which required a string of precise positional shots, and went on to establish a 3-1 lead after Wilson had missed with the rest - usually a weapon of his. A break of 75 continued the quietly solid start O'Sullivan had produced as the players went into the mid-session interval.

Upon the resumption, O'Sullivan immediately looked troubled by his cue-action, which he's complained about throughout the tournament. In frame five he ran out of position so carelessly, though Wilson did well to conjure a 63 break including a confidence-boosting pot with the rest to cut the deficit in half.

O'Sullivan potted two good, long reds in the next to eventually force a concession, before a brilliant 106 break had the Crucible crowd roaring for perhaps the first time since their idol had entered the arena.

Wilson looked like he would respond by taking an important final frame, but after missing a long pot on the pink and suffering an unfortunate double kiss, O'Sullivan swept in and made him pay. It had not always been pretty, but the 44-year-old took a healthy lead into the evening regardless, with BBC pundit Stephen Hendry declaring the match over.

Wilson rallies

When O'Sullivan took the first two frames upon resumption it was hard to disagree, but there were signs that O'Sullivan was vulnerable - especially from long range - and Wilson began to look a little more comfortable now chasing what some considered to be a lost cause.

It was a precise 92 break which got him moving in the right direction, and Wilson took the final frame of the mini-session in somewhat bizarre circumstances. O'Sullivan had elected to continue when needing just one snooker, but after fouling twice continued to play until deciding to pot the remaining balls, prolonging a frame Wilson had long since won to ensure the first four of the evening had been shared.

That rally from Wilson was extended as the players returned, the Kettering potter building a lead and then breathing a sigh of relief as a rallying O'Sullivan failed to connect with a key cannon, before finding himself in a snooker. Suddenly, the lead had been cut from three to six and those fragilities which had emerged in the game of O'Sullivan began to look serious.

Three in a row became four as two rank safety shots from O'Sullivan saw him fail to trouble the scorer in frame 14, and he was fortunate to stop the bleeding in the next and lead 9-6. Wilson had done so much of the hard work and played what looked an excellent, pack-splitting pot on the blue, only for one of the reds to escape, tip into the pocket, and hand the opening to a grateful O'Sullivan.

Now sure to lead overnight regardless, O'Sullivan had to sit back and watch as Wilson compiled a brilliant century, his run of exactly a hundred his most controlled and well-executed break since the semi-finals and enough to intensify the significance of the final frame of the session.

It had at times been a slog, but this championship has delivered drama throughout and that was again true here, Wilson earning an opportunity with some precise break-building only to miss the final red along the cushion, leaving it for O'Sullivan once more.

The five-time world champion again landed the counter-punch and that's all that separated them on a gripping if not particularly high-class first two sessions. Wilson had chances and, just as he'd started to take them, gave away perhaps the most significant one of all. Just how much it affects him when play resumes on Sunday may determine just how much of a fight he's able to put up. He did nothing but fight on Saturday, and his reward is hope, where there had been none.

Follow our live blog of the final here