Ronnie O’Sullivan’s ‘derogatory’ comments have snooker stars cueing up to make him eat his words

Welshman Williams, seeking a fourth world title of his own, won five consecutive frames at the Crucible to establish a 6-2 overnight advantage in the best-of-25 quarter-final.

There was nothing to separate the veteran duo before the mid-session interval as they shared the opening four frames, which included an O’Sullivan century.

But O’Sullivan, who controversially questioned snooker’s next generation after beating Ding Junhui on Sunday by saying he would need to “lose an arm and a leg” to fall out of the top 50, was second best on the resumption of play and left with plenty to ponder.

Opponent Williams edged a scrappy fifth frame before propelling himself into a healthy position with breaks of 72, 56 and a superb 130.

O’Sullivan’s comments have caused quite a stir in snooker circles.

Former world champion Ken Doherty labelled them derogatory, while less than three miles from the Crucible where O’Sullivan delivered his damning verdict on the state of snooker’s next generation, 16-year-old Jamie Wilson was in the process of realising his lifelong dream.

With O’Sullivan doubtless tucked up in bed after dispatching Ding Junhui to reach the World Championship quarter-finals, Wilson was battling into the early hours and through three consecutive final-frame deciders to win a two-year place on the professional tour via the sport’s qualification format, Q School.

With 14-year-old Ukrainian Iulian Boiko already confirmed to compete on the tour next season, Wilson is far from the youngest member of a group indirectly dismissed by O’Sullivan, who described the general standard of emerging players as “so bad.”

Wilson said: “I would love to play Ronnie, it would be a great experience and it would be even better to beat him because of all the stuff he says about amateurs. I used to follow Ronnie but I’m more of a Judd Trump fan now.”

Back at the Crucible, Kyren Wilson moved into a 5-3 lead over defending champion Trump in the morning session, and then made that 9-6 by splitting the first six frames of the evening session in the race to 13.

Wilson drew first blood with a break of 74 in the opener but world No 1 Trump responded with scores of 85 and 76 in the next two frames to edge ahead.

A run of three successive frames then helped Wilson build a 4-2 lead before Trump reduced the deficit by taking the seventh.

However, Wilson was able to restore his two-frame lead with a break of 79 just before the interval to leave Trump trailing after the first session for the third successive match.

Mark Selby, the champion in 2014, 2016 and again in 2017, held the upper hand in his quarter-final with Neil Robertson – the 2010 winner – after also establishing an 8-5 lead, although the advantage could have been even greater.

Selby edged a marathon 58-minute opening frame, the longest in this year’s tournament, and then reeled off the next four frames to race 5-0 in front.

However, Robertson hauled himself back into the match by winning the final three frames of the session, recording breaks of 83, 66 and 65.

In the battle of the qualifiers, Anthony McGill already looks on course for a maiden Crucible semi-final.

The Scot dominated the opening session of his meeting with Norwegian Kurt Maflin and will resume on Tuesday holding a commanding 7-1 lead.