O'Sullivan on the brink

Ronnie O'Sullivan is poised to become only the fourth player to complete snooker's most coveted treble as he closed in on the 888.com World Championship crown against Ali Carter at the Crucible Theatre.

O'Sullivan is set to join Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry and Mark Williams in winning the UK Championship and the world title plus clinching the number one spot in the rankings in the same season.

'The Rocket' will need only two of the final 11 frames to win his third world title - and a first prize of £250,000 - after opening up a 16-8 advantage in the best-of-35 encounter.

O'Sullivan led 11-5 going into the third session and no-one has ever recovered from such a heavy overnight deficit in snooker's most prestigious tournament.

What will be galling for Carter is that O'Sullivan failed to produce anything like the standard he had shown in demolishing seven-times champion Stephen Hendry in the semi-finals.

It was almost as if O'Sullivan knew Carter would not be able to provide him with a stiff enough challenge after winning the previous eight meetings between the duo and looked content to revert to his 'B' game.

But Carter will be massively disappointed to have failed to make the most of several decent opportunities which have come his way.

It looked like a match too far for Carter, who appeared to have little left in his tank to mount any sort of comeback at the end of a gruelling fortnight.

But he can take consolation from collecting more than £200,000 for his efforts - £125,000 for finishing runner-up and £78,500 for sharing the highest break prize of £157,000 with O'Sullivan after both notched 147s.

O'Sullivan started the third session at staggering odds of 1-200 to polish off 28-year-old Carter, who is appearing in his first ever ranking final.