Ronnie O’Sullivan was facing a Crucible crisis after the title favourite was left trailing in the wake of Stephen Maguire at the Betfred World Championship.

The five-time champion will return to the arena on Sunday morning knowing he needs to find a rescue effort to stay in the tournament after sliding 6-3 adrift in the best-of-19 tussle.

With defending champion Mark Selby 7-2 behind against Joe Perry, and returning on Saturday night on a mission to salvage his own trophy bid, it was proving a remarkable opening day in Sheffield.

Flickers of O’Sullivan’s brilliance were not enough to hold back qualifier Maguire, who resisted a fightback and put himself in a commanding overnight position by taking the final two frames of the session.

Maguire dominated the early stages and was 4-0 ahead at the mid-session interval, with the misfiring O’Sullivan having to stew in his seat and watch his opponent fire breaks of 101 and 95, showing he meant business.

O’Sullivan has not been beaten in the opening round in Sheffield since losing 10-6 to Marco Fu in 2003, but landing a tie against two-time losing semi-finalist Maguire presented him with a major early test.

Seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry, commentating for the BBC, said O’Sullivan was looking “very flat … not what you expect” as Maguire built up his lead.

Something clicked though as the danger grew, with O’Sullivan firing in 54, 118 and 110 in next to no time and clipping his deficit to only one frame.

Momentum was with him, but it can be quickly lost in snooker.

O’Sullivan lost his composure during the eighth frame, playing a poor positional shot and following up by rushing an attempted safety. O’Sullivan stuck his tongue out, annoyed at himself. It left Maguire a chance that was seized upon, and later in the same frame O’Sullivan blundered again, missing a straightforward escape from a snooker and leaving a free ball.

The sloppy play and lethargic body language persisted until the frame was safely in Maguire’s hands, meaning the Glaswegian was guaranteed a lead to take into Sunday morning’s final session.

And that lead became three frames when Maguire capitalised on more O’Sullivan mistakes in the final frame of the day, a break of 84 a fine way for the 37-year-old to cap his day’s work.

Stephen Maguire
Stephen Maguire showed his focus to pull ahead against the tournament favourite (Richard Sellers/PA)

Maguire qualified for the tournament on Wednesday and said he would get drunk to celebrate, but there was no hangover under the Crucible lights and more of the same on Sunday could clinch him the scalp of a player he has beaten four times before.

Selby’s capitulation against Perry came as arguably a greater surprise.

When he pulled back from 4-0 adrift to 4-2 with breaks of 74 and 92, a familiar Selby recovery looked to be well under way.

It was nipped in the bud though by 43-year-old Perry, a former semi-finalist at this tournament, who rattled in breaks of 59, 84 and 109 to cream off three frames in a row.

Chinese debutant Lyu Haotian made two centuries in establishing a 6-3 lead against Fu, who has been absent from the tour recently after eye surgery.

England’s Kyren Wilson capped an impressive performance against Matthew Stevens with a break of 126 to achieve a 7-2 cushion.