Stevens seizes early initiative

Matthew Stevens seized the early initiative by winning three of the opening four frames in his Embassy World Championship semi-final with Peter Ebdon at the Crucible Theatre.

Stevens, who is still waiting to win his first ranking tournament, began in the impressive form which had helped him dispose of Jimmy White and John Higgins on his way to a third successive world semi-final.

The Welshman 2-5 on with the bookmakers to win the best-of-33-frame encounter initially broke down on 17 after missing a black off its spot but quickly put that behind him with an 84 clearance.

Ebdon, a beaten finalist six years ago, clawed level with a run of 41 after initially collecting 20 points when Stevens failed on five occasions to escape from a snooker.

The third frame was a scrappy affair lasting half an hour with both players plenty of errors before Stevens edged back in front with the help of a 39 break.

Ebdon was first among the balls in the final frame before the interval but he broke down on 24 and Stevens notched his second half century of the match as his 73 to the final red proved sufficient.

In the other semi-final Ronnie O’Sullivan built up a 5-3 lead in the first session of his grudge encounter with Stephen Hendry.

O’Sullivan had claimed he had lost ‘‘a lot of respect’’ for Hendry after an incident in their meeting in the 1999 world semi-final when he had a miss called against him and was then asked to play the shot again by the Scot.

The Rocket had also been critical of his three-and-a-half-year spell as part of the same management stable as Hendry under the leadership of Ian Doyle.

But Doyle tonight refused to be drawn into a war of words with O’Sullivan after taking legal advice.

He told PA Sport: ‘‘I can’t make any comment on legal advice. Let’s get the world championships out of the way and see what’s what. I can’t make any comment.’’

O’Sullivan was the heavier scorer in the first session and he began proceedings with a 115 break and ended with a 99.

Hendry drew level on three occasions but in the final two frames was unable to pot a ball as O’Sullivan scored 182 points without reply to take a two frame advantage.