Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Jackson Page LIVE: Latest scores and updates from World Snooker Championship

Tactical play at the start of this frame with neither player wanting to take on the risky shots and the safety play being generally quite high.

It’s an unusual sight for two players who like to take pots on.

A big difference with Ronnie O’Sullivan this season is that he’s been so determined and focused to succeed. He’s avoided any sort of risky shot and is content to wait for his opponent’s mistakes to appear.

This frame opens with a few safety shots and already the yellow and green have been displaced from their spots. Jackson Page has a horrible task.

He’s so far behind that he can only try his best to keep the match going as long as possible.

In no time O’Sullivan’s break is up over 50 and he continues to polish off the remaining reds, using the blue as the positional colour. The remaining two reds are close to the left cushion and he can’t pocket any of them.

It’s quick work of the first frame as O’Sullivan takes it 79-16 and doesn’t leave his seat. O’Sullivan is one away from the second round.

Yesterday, any chance O’Sullivan had to score he took. Page was blown away and the Rocket has picked up where he left off. He nestles a red into the bottom left then starts to build a break.

Red, black, red, black, red, black, rinse and repeat. Already this doesn’t look good for Jackson Page.

O’Sullivan leaves Page with a teasing potential pot to the bottom left pocket. Page takes it on and slides it home to get the first points on the board in this frame.

The black drops in too but Page isn’t set up for an easy red. Instead he has to go up the table to the green pocket… he gets it! That was superb from Page who pots the black again.

The cueball clips a red and lands close to the top cushion which ends his break at just 16.

Robert Milkins and David Gilbert are playing the first session of their second round match on the second table but we’ll be following the end of Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Jackson Page.

Page is the first to break off.

Here are the top 16 seeds for the World Championship with eight of them already defeated:

Those that lost their first round matches are: Brecel, Allen, Selby, Williams, Ding, Carter, G. Wilson, Anda

Ryan Day’s 10-8 victory over Barry Hawkins on Wednesday means that the record for the most seeded players falling at the first hurdle has been equalled.

In 1980, eight seeds lost their opening match, and that tally was matched in 1992, 2012 and now again in 2024 with defending champion, Luca Brecel, out first.

Alright, coverage is just starting on BBC 2. Ronnie O’Sullivan needs just two frames to move into the second round. The best result from the first round so far was a 10-1 victory for Kyren Wilson, can O’Sullivan match that?

Ronnie O’Sullivan 8-1 Jackson Page

Ronnie O’Sullivan roared out of the blocks in his quest to become the first eight-time world champion in the modern era as he built an 8-1 lead over Jackson Page in the first session of their first round match at the Crucible.

O’Sullivan looked up for the task from the off as he fired four half-centuries plus a break of 122 in the fifth frame as he left the young Welsh qualifier next to no chance of rescuing the situation when they resume to a conclusion on Thursday.

Making his second appearance at the Crucible, the 22-year-old Page had plenty of early chances but careless errors cost him dear and he looked in real danger of losing the session to whitewash until he crafted a superb break of 142 in the seventh frame to clinch his only success of the day in style.

Otherwise it was business as usual for O’Sullivan, who has seemed much more at ease with the challenge of negotiating another 17-day marathon this year and started accordingly as he stifled any attempt by Page to establish momentum.