O'Sullivan shares spoils so far

Ronnie O’Sullivan put his lack of self belief to one side in sharing the opening four frames of his 888.com World Championship semi-final with Graeme Dott at the Crucible Theatre.

O’Sullivan went into the best of 33 frames contest claiming he had “the least confidence of the four semi-finalists in terms of winning the tournament”.

The Rocket has also been plagued with tip trouble during the past fortnight and had the 11th different one on his cue when facing the Scot whom he had beaten in the 2004 final.

Dott had been 5-0 up in that encounter with O’Sullivan before losing 18-8 and he made a positive statement of intent in the opening frame.

O’Sullivan played a poor safety shot and Dott took full advantage by knocking in a long red to launch a splendid 121 break to the final pink.

The next was scrappy and lasted more than half an hour before O’Sullivan’s run of 34 helped bring him back on level terms.

O’Sullivan showed his frustration at missing a straightforward red in frame three and banged his cue against his hand which he rubbed ruefully when back in his seat.

Dean Martin fan Dott again demonstrated he was on song as he took full advantage with a 68 break.

The last frame before the interval produced no sizeable breaks but saw O’Sullivan draw level for the second time.

The opening session of the Peter Ebdon-Marco Fu semi-final was an attritional affair and the players shared the eight frames which occupied nearly four hours.

Fu is rapidly becoming snooker’s marathon man. He had been involved in a 59 minute frame – the longest of the 2006 tournament – during a quarter-final win over Ken Doherty that spanned nearly nine hours.

And it was a similar scenario against 2002 title holder Ebdon with the sixth frame in the best of 33 contest lasting nearly 53 minutes.

Fu showed he has the temperament for such battles by triumphing on both occasions and perhaps that is an indication of the influence on his game of former world champion and coach Terry Griffiths who was renowned for his patient approach.

An 81 in frame one was Fu’s highest break of the session while Ebdon’s top contribution was a 56 in the next. Play will resume on Friday morning.