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Ronnie O'Sullivan was branded evil by former world champion John Parrott during the first session of his Crucible battle with John Higgins. The Class of '92 duo are facing off against one another in the last 16 in Sheffield.

O'Sullivan and Higgins have a whopping 11 World Snooker Championship titles between them and are two revered veterans of the baize. The Rocket brushed He Guoqiang aside 10-2 to begin this year's edition, whilst Higgins bested Ali Carter 10-7 in the first round. The pair are now fighting for a place in the last eight and O'Sullivan holds a 9-7 lead in the best-of-25-frames match after the second session. But it was during the first session on Saturday that the 50-year-old's behaviour caught the eye of BBC pundit Parrott.

O'Sullivan was rather dominant to begin the tie, racing into a 6-2 lead with some astute potting. Parrott pointed this out in his commentary and claimed the Englishman looked evil when he got among the balls.

"It's absolutely the right result," Parrott said on the BBC of the first session scoreline. "If John could have got out of it 5-3 behind, he'd have been delighted. I think on what we've seen on the play, 6-2 is definitely the right scoreline. Ronnie was pretty evil there amongst the balls and was definitely the best of the two players.

"He [Higgins] knows he's very capable of beating Ronnie 6-2. At the moment...usually if you want to turn a score around you've got to play great and you need a little bit of help. That little bit of help I don't think is going to be forthcoming, so John's going to have to have his top game because it doesn't look like Ronnie's going to dip any time soon.

"I think tinkering about and getting the method he's happy with and hitting the ball, I think he's really happy. I was talking to him the other night in the practice room and he's saying it's the best he's felt hitting the ball, he's really happy with the way he's striking it."

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Higgins did find some form when the pair's game resumed on Sunday and rallied late on in session two, winning the final three frames of the day to make it 9-7 to O'Sullivan. The Scot's opponent, as Parrott pointed out, has been quite open about how he has been playing at the tournament so far, having struggled for form this year and bypassing several major events.

Asked if he feels reinvigorated, O'Sullivan said: "I certainly feel like I want to play now, whereas before I was just scared of playing. I'd just had enough of hitting poor shot after poor shot.

"Now, I get excited about playing because I think I'm going to hit some nice shots, and that's all I want to do. My game's still not anywhere near where it needs to be but that's not important at this stage of my career. I've just got to take enjoying the game."