Ronnie O’Sullivan v Stephen Maguire: Rocket faces battle at 2018 World Championship

ByEurosport

Updated 22/04/2018 at 07:09 GMT

Ronnie O'Sullivan has a fight on his hands to salvage his World Championship hopes after falling 6-3 behind to Stephen Maguire in the first round at the Crucible.

Ronnie O’Sullivan reacts during his clash with Stephen Maguire (Richard Sellers/PA)

Image credit: PA Sport

Tournament favourite and five-times champion O'Sullivan was wasteful among the balls in the first four frames as former UK Champion Maguire dominated without having to be at his best.

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The Scotsman opened with a break of 101 and produced 95 in the third frame as O'Sullivan faced losing in the first round for the first time since 2003.

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O’Sullivan has not been beaten in the opening round in Sheffield since losing 10-6 to Marco Fu 15 years ago, but landing a tie against two-time losing semi-finalist Maguire presented him with a major early test.

O'Sullivan appeared to have stopped the rot by winning a scrappy fifth frame boosted by a 54 before back-to-back centuries of 118 and 110 saw him close to one behind.

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O'Sullivan pots stunning red

But O'Sullivan never exuded the air of a man in control as an awful attempt to escape from a snooker gave Maguire a free ball that he benefited from for a 5-3 advantage before a closing break of 84 gave him a three-frame overnight lead.

The sloppy play and lethargic body language is certainly a concern for a man chasing a sixth world title to equal the haul of Steve Davis and Ray Reardon in Sheffield.

Maguire's perfect plant shot

The first man to 10 frames reaches the second round when they play to a finish at 10am on Sunday morning.

In Saturday afternoon other match, Kyren Wilson leads two-times finalist Matthew Stevens 7-2 in the first round boosted by a fine knock of 126.