Ronnie O'Sullivan leads Kyren Wilson 17-8 having taken complete control of their World Championship final at the Crucible.
Following a strong rally in the second session on Saturday evening, Wilson would have held high hopes of turning the match in his favour when kicking off the third session with a break of 73 that reduced his deficit to two frames.
However, that would prove to be Wilson's only moment of cheer on a crushing afternoon for the Kettering potter who saw his title aspirations slip away in the face of a fearsome O'Sullivan onslaught.
Having looked out of sorts and a little weary at the end of Saturday's two sessions - that on the back of his dramatic defeat of Mark Selby on Friday night - O'Sullivan would have been relieved to have held a three-frame advantage overnight, and he was a completely different animal less than a day later as he reeled off six breaks of over 50 in a sparkling and ruthless display.
Following the help of a big fluke early in frame 19, O'Sullivan looked razor sharp as he put together a run of 53, though Wilson did get the chance to counter and might well look back on a missed pink to middle that could well have reduced his arrears to a single frame.
As it was, O'Sullivan reestablished his three-frame cushion in clinical fashion and from there on in it was one-way traffic.
Breaks of 48 and 61 allowed O'Sullivan to extend his lead to 12-8 and when he followed up with 57 in the following frame, Wilson's hopes were already falling apart as his own game grew increasingly ragged.
He did have his chances in frame 22, but more lapse positional play opened the door for O'Sullivan to stick the knife in further and he did so with typical panache, a break of 60 seeing him strike the ball with as much authority as he has all tournament.
At 14-8 down, Wilson desperately needed to win at least two of the final three frames of the session to keep his opponent in sight, but O'Sullivan isn't for catching now and looked to have found all of his old swagger when floating around the table for another frame-winning hand - this time of 71 - that was sealed with a magnificent positional shot from yellow to frame-ball red.
Wilson was again in first in frame 24 but his game was unravelling in front of a reduced Crucible crowd and O'Sullivan jumped all over another mistake from his opponent, adding a typically fluent break of 72 to win his sixth frame on the spin and move 16-8 in front.
O'Sullivan was now circling for the kill and built up a healthy early lead in the final frame of the session before finally offering Wilson some hope when missing frame-ball black.
However, Wilson was distraught when leaving that same black hanging over the pocket after catching the near jaw and O'Sullivan made no mistake this time, closing out the frame and putting himself within touching distance of a sixth world title and a record-breaking 37th ranking title victory.
Play resumes at 7.30pm.
