Ronnie O'Sullivan is trying to “silence the voices” inside his head as he tries to win a record eighth World Championship. The Rocket, 49, blew away Ali Carter in his first-round match and opened up a 6-2 overnight advantage over Chinese qualifier Pang Junxu in their second-round showdown on Saturday at the Crucible Theatre. O’Sullivan returned to the sport on the game's biggest stage after a three-month hiatus due to bouts of self-doubt.

Snooker’s greatest showman knocked in six breaks over 50 as he continued his charge towards history in the first session of this best-of-25-frame clash. The draw has been blown right open for the Rocket, who was due to face Zhang Anda in the last 16 and a potential quarter-final with Mark Selby. Former champion Neil Robertson and eighth seed Mark Allen have also gone packing in O’Sullivan’s half.

The fifth seed, who returns on Sunday afternoon, admitted: “I have never had that strong belief that this is mine for the taking. It’s that inner dialogue that you have to change. I know what I need to do. I am trying to interrupt that bad voice that keeps creeping in.

“I have a lot of self-doubt. Definitely I don’t have that thing of, ‘I can win this.’ And I never have. Even when I was flying in 2008, 2012, 2013. I still felt like it could have gone wrong at any time. It didn’t. But you do feel like that.

“Listen, this game has a way of humbling any snooker player. It is a really, really hard game. Every player goes through their struggles at some point in their careers. Even John Higgins had a lean spell. Mark Williams. But then they come good again.

“I am saying, they have been through it, why I shouldn’t go through it? I’m trying. It takes time to nit together. I have no expectations because of the form I have had over the past three or four years.”

The match had a similar feel to their encounter on this stage two years ago, when Pang made his debut. O’Sullivan made the most of the chances his opponent coughed up as he won the fist four frames with breaks of 58, 91, 50 and 63.

Pang, who fought back from 6-1 down during his 10-7 defeat, opened his account with a classy century of 119.

O’Sullivan took two of the final three frames of the session to open up a commanding four-frame cushion with further runs of 68, 52 and 58.

Meanwhile, fellow Class of 92 great Mark Williams, 50, became the oldest quarter-finalist since Steve Davis — who was 52 when he reached the last eight in 2010 — with a 13-10 victory over Hossein Vafaei.

And the three-time champion said: “I enjoyed the game. It was a funny game. We had seven re-racks which is unheard of.

“I made a brilliant hundred in the last frame. I was thinking it would be good to make a 30. I’m pleased to be in another quarter-final. It will be a great occasion.”