SHEFFIELD (England), May 3: Ronnie O’Sullivan crushed seven-time champion Stephen Hendry 17-6 with a session to spare to reach the World Snooker Championship final on Friday.

O’Sullivan will play either Ali Carter or Joe Perry in the final — Carter was leading 9-7 overnight — but on the evidence of this form he has to be hot favourite, leaving Hendry stunned by the quality and consistency of his play.

After the pair had split the opening eight frames in the first session on Thursday, O’Sullivan, bidding for his third title at the Crucible, raced to a 13-4 lead in the best-of-33 encounter with a 126 clearance.

Hendry stopped the rot, albeit briefly, a break of 85 preventing O’Sullivan matching Mark Williams’ record of 13 straight sets five years ago in a second-round contest.

O’Sullivan then missed a blue when he had the chance of snatching the next frame as Hendry gratefully returned to the table to clear and reduce the deficit to a mere seven frames only to lose the 20th frame as O’Sullivan moved to within three of victory.

Incredibly, with Hendry at his mercy at 16-6 and on the brink of victory, O’Sullivan pocketed the cue ball but Hendry then fluffed the black to concede the contest.

Hendry had earlier failed to take frame-winning chances in three of the four morning frames, starting with a missed red in the first frame of the morning, which allowed O’Sullivan in for a break of 93.

After that he hardly had a sniff.

Hendry was again first among the balls in the next with a 53 and then O’Sullivan responded with a 44 before missing the final blue — but managed to snooker his opponent behind the pink.

The seven-time champion tried to pot the blue via a cushion but failed to make contact and, with the ball hanging over the pocket, O’Sullivan cleared up.

It was a similar scenario in the next with Hendry putting together a 35 and O’Sullivan replying with 57 before laying a snooker on the final red.

Hendry escaped at the second attempt but the red was left close to a black pocket and O’Sullivan again took advantage.

The final frame before the interval was more clear-cut with O’Sullivan’s 87 break settling the issue after a superb long red had set him on his way.

In the other semi-final, Carter had been trailing 5-3 after the opening session with Perry seemingly in control but stormed back to win six of the next eight frames to lead 9-7 overnight.—AFP