Ronnie O'Sullivan made short work of Dominic Dale this afternoon as he raced through to the second round of the Betfred.com World Championship.
Despite his recent threat to pull out of the tournament, three-time former winner O'Sullivan gave a confident performance in his opener and took the three remaining frames he required with high breaks today to seal a 10-2 success.
He was helped throughout the match by Welshman Dale leaving him plenty of easy starting reds, and nobody is more ruthless than O'Sullivan when given half a chance.
The 35-year-old twice threatened maximum breaks yesterday, and did secure his 100th career Crucible century in frame eight, as Dale's early challenge faded.
At one stage it was 2-2, but O'Sullivan pulled away and had brisk breaks of 115, 96 and 100 today to sprint through to a clash with Shaun Murphy, the 2005 champion, in the second round.
There could hardly have been an easier first match of the championship for O'Sullivan, as Dale underperformed and failed to make it a real contest.
Victory was O'Sullivan's first in a ranking tournament match since September, when he reached the World Open final, and halts a run of four straight first-round defeats in major events.
Marco Fu lost in the first round to Martin Gould last year but was looking good to take revenge for that defeat, as the 33-year-old Hong Kong potter built a 6-3 lead against the man from Pinner, firing breaks of 70, 97, 81, 63, 115 and 56.
That match concludes tomorrow, and the winner plays Neil Robertson's conqueror Judd Trump in the second round.
Another match due to finish in day five's opening session is the tussle between Rory McLeod and Ricky Walden, but they were hauled off after eight of their scheduled nine frames this lunchtime due to slow play.
The English pair were tied at 4-4 in a match which could require a third session if the painstakingly pedestrian play continues.
Last year's runner-up Graeme Dott made more of a brisk start, the Larkhall cueman opening up a 6-3 advantage over Romford's Mark King.
