RONNIE O'Sullivan put an uncertain start behind him to share the opening eight frames of his 888.com World Championship semi-final with Stephen Hendry at the Crucible Theatre.
O'Sullivan won the final three frames of the initial session yesterday to level the best-of-33 showdown at 4-4 against seven-time champion Hendry.
O'Sullivan started as an odds on favourite to beat the Scot, whom he had thrashed 17-4 in their las
t Crucible meeting, a semi-final clash four years ago.
But his long potting has been his Achilles heel during the tournament with only a 57 per cent success rate and he tried to rein in his natural attacking instincts and play in a more conservative vein until the closing stages of the session.
Hendry took full advantage in the opening frame when O'Sullivan refused a long red and produced a poor safety shot. Hendry, making a record 12th last-four appearance, cued smoothly as he put together a superb 140 total clearance for the 718th century of his career.
It was half an hour before O'Sullivan potted his first ball of the match midway through the second frame but the world No1 made too many unforced errors. He looked set to nick the frame after knocking in the final long red but missed a thin cut on the blue.
A break of 60 helped Hendry stretch his led to 3-0 and O'Sullivan was in danger of a pre-interval whitewash as he missed the kind of pots he would normally convert. Both players were guilty of mistakes in the final frame before the break but O'Sullivan finally opened his account after Hendry failed to leave the white behind the black and stuck the final yellow over the middle pocket.
Hendry regained his three-frame advantage after seeing O'Sullivan break down on 64 when another maximum was a possibility. After a run of 41, Hendry was then fortunate to snooker O'Sullivan on the final green and he left the ball over the pocket and a 25 clearance was sufficient to pinch the frame.
O'Sullivan finally came to life in frame six and some superb screw-and-stun shots helped him compile a 102 break before runs of 32 and 31 in the next were enough to leave Hendry needing snookers.
A missed black off its spot when 46-0 ahead did not prove costly for O'Sullivan in the final frame of the session as he completed his comeback.
Meanwhile, Joe Perry, fresh from his dramatic 13-12 win over Stephen Maguire late on Wednesday evening, began the other semi-final yesterday evening.
Maguire, however, admitted he blew his chance of World Championship glory by severely underestimating his quarter-final opponent. The Scot, the only player to win two ranking events this season, slumped to a shock 13-12 defeat at the hands of world No18 Perry.
"I never gave him the respect he deserves," said the 27-year-old from Glasgow, who cruised through his opening two matches. "I played him last year and slaughtered him to be honest and I thought I was going to do it again. There was something missing, I don't know if I was mentally in that match. The final frame was the first bit of pressure I have been under and it was like 'Where did that come from?' I never handled it.
"I've had a good season and I'm going to end it at world No2, so I can't complain but at the end of the day it's a bad result."
Perry admitted he had enjoyed the luck of the draw with his surprise run to the last four, but kept his nerve to recover from 12-11 down to win the final two nerve-racking frames.
"When you turn pro you want to play at the Crucible, then reach the one-table stage, then reach the final and then win it. I am absolutely thrilled," he said.
"I was just trying to keep my cool in the last frame. I was nervous, but I've been a lot more nervous than that before and I was surprised at how calm I was when my chance came along.
"There is no such thing as an easy draw but I knew I had a struggling Graeme Dott in the first round and then either Steve Davis or Stuart Bingham in the second, neither of whom are winning many tournaments.
"I knew if I could find some form anything could happen and I feel really confident that I can stand up to whatever is thrown at me."
