Judd Trump dominated the early stages of his World Championship semi-final with Mark Williams to take a commanding 7-1 lead at the Crucible.
Trump’s long potting was a constant theme of a scrappy opening session as three-time champion Williams struggled to find any sort of fluency.
The Welshman’s only success came in a long fourth frame, and he appeared unhappy with the table at the end of it when he rolled a ball down the cloth to check its condition.
Following a rerack in the opening frame, Williams’ misery began when he went into a bunch of reds after potting a blue and one of them ended in the bottom pocket.
Trump, the 2019 world champion, took advantage with 49 in reply before a long brown after some safety exchanges sealed the frame.
Successive breaks of 70, the first one benefiting from another Williams in-off, gave Trump a 3-0 lead before a see-saw fourth frame which lasted over 33 minutes.
Williams made heavy weather of his first success after a well-compiled 46 had put him in the driving seat, Trump almost threatening to get the two snookers needed to poach the frame.
It was the same story, however, after the interval as Trump prospered from range and Williams suffered another crucial in-off to dent his recovery hopes.
Trump won a messy fifth frame and came out on top of another safety battle in the sixth.
A 62 break gave Trump the next frame before more caution led to the second rerack of the session.
Trump was looking increasingly confident and produced breaks of 53 and 41 to extend his lead to six, leaving Williams with a mountain to climb in Friday’s second session.
