• World Championship

O'Sullivan holds four-frame lead over Hawkins

The match is a repeat of last year's final © Getty Images

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Ronnie O'Sullivan leads Barry Hawkins 6-2 after the first session of their semi-final encounter at the World Championship.

In a repeat of the 2013 final, defending champion O'Sullivan trailed 2-1 but won five frames in succession to hold a four-frame advantage heading into the second session on Saturday morning at the Crucible.

O'Sullivan, who defeated Shaun Murphy 13-3 in the quarter-finals with a session to spare, won the opening frame with a break of 63 after Hawkins was punished for missing a simple red.

But Hawkins made O'Sullivan pay for an error on a safety shot by knocking in a 96 for 1-1 and then took the lead with a 76. O'Sullivan, though, pulled level at the mid-session interval by landing the final pink in the fourth frame.

A quick-fire 80 from O'Sullivan and a clearance of 39 - after Hawkins left the final red on following a double kiss - put O'Sullivan two up at 4-2.

Hawkins had the first opportunity in the seventh frame, but he failed to sink a brown to the left middle and O'Sullivan stepped in to make the first century of the match with a 108.

'The Rocket' also took the final frame of the session following an awful miss on a red to the left centre pocket from Hawkins.

Elsewhere, Mark Selby took an early 5-3 lead over Neil Robertson in the first session of their semi-final on Thursday.

Selby was 2-1 down but took the next four frames against the 2010 world champion, however Robertson - who made it an historic ton of tons in a single season in his quarter-final win over Judd Trump - added century No.101 with a stunning break of 130 in frame eight to cut Selby's lead to two frames.

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