SHEFFIELD (England), April 27: Defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan took a 6-2 lead over Peter Ebdon in their world snooker championship quarterfinal on Tuesday.

It was a one-sided session with O’Sullivan making breaks of 137, 101, 79 and 71 and Ebdon failing to score in three frames.

On another table, qualifier Shaun Murphy established a commanding 7-1 lead over six-times champion Steve Davis.

Murphy knocked out 1998 champion John Higgins on Monday to reach the last eight and now needs six more frames to go through to the semifinals.

Matthew Stevens was 5-3 up against Stephen Hendry at the end of the opening session in their quarterfinal.

Welshman Stevens took a 5-1 lead as Hendry struggled to find his best form but the 36-year-old Scot won the last two frames of the session to reduce the deficit.

Results quarterfinal (best of 25)

Ronnie O’Sullivan (England) leads Peter Ebdon (England) 6-2 (79-1 137-0 63-68 101-0 98-0 86-8 48-71 110-14); Shaun Murphy (England) leads Steve Davis (England) 7-1 (72-5 47-43 62-73 73-51 82-1 51-28 107-4 70-66); Matthew Stevens (Wales) leads Stephen Hendry (Scotland) 5-3 (70-31 74-8 63-4 7-84 114-0 70-41 40-71 18-77); Alan McManus (Scotland) leads Ian McCulloch (England) 5-3 (31-101 0-125 0-119 64-24 67-13 72-29 66-42 66-59) —Reuters