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Ronnie O'Sullivan made an immediate gaffe on his return to the Crucible - as he wandered over to the wrong table. The Rocket has spent more time competing at the World Championships than any other player, making his 108th appearance at the Sheffield snooker venue in his match against He Guoqiang. He ended the day with a 7-2 lead and will look to secure his spot in the next round as routinely as possible in the second session on Wednesday.

Yet despite his unrivalled familiarity with the surroundings, O'Sullivan couldn't find his bearings as he made his entrance. The 50-year-old was greeted with a thunderous reception from the crowd as he strode into the Crucible cauldron and headed towards Table 2. However, WST referee Ron Spencer was forced to swiftly redirect O'Sullivan to the opposite side of the arena, as he was in fact due on Table 1.

The seven-times World Champion laughed off the mix-up before making his way across to take his rightful seat.

O'Sullivan is eager to make his mark at the Worlds and surpass Stephen Hendry by claiming a record eighth title, but has admitted to adopting a fresh approach in the build-up.

He said: "I'm happy to be here. It would be nice to play decent here, so yeah, it's good to be back. I don't play as much because I tend to get a little bit bored of just practising now.

"So I do it in stages, I put a little stint in and then I take some time out because I still want to enjoy the game rather than feel like I'm just doing it for the sake of doing it.

"It's a different kind of preparation, but I still hope to hit form at some point during the year and maybe have one or two good results, but I'm not as relentless as I used to be."

O'Sullivan possesses the ability and, crucially, the temperament to triumph once more as he explained: "The bottom line is that you can put all the practice and preparation in, do everything right and still not do well because you just can't handle the big occasions that well.

"You've got to be able to hold yourself under pressure and that's why people win the big stuff more often than others. It's not because they practice more or they do anything special. Some people can handle bigger occasions better than others."

Scotland's Alan McManus, who is working for TNT Sports, reckons that O'Sullivan stands an excellent chance of prevailing at the Crucible.

He said: "I suspect we're going to get an in-good-nick O'Sullivan because I think his prep that we know about, the tournaments he's played in, he did well out in China, then he had a fun event in Ireland that he played really nicely. And he'll have been playing a lot. It's the World Championship, of course he will have."