By John Curtis, PA Sport

Tournament favourite Matthew Stevens produced a brilliant display of potting to take command of his Embassy World Championship semi-final with Joe Swail at the Crucible Theatre.

Stevens, 7-4 with the bookmakers to take his first world title, won six frames in a row to open up a 10-6 lead against his shell-shocked opponent who had no answer to the accuracy of the Welshman.

Now he needs just seven more of the remaining 17 frames to book a final meeting with either John Higgins or Mark Williams who resume their semi-final this afternoon.

Stevens, the Benson and Hedges Masters champion, had been guilty of some uncharacteristic errors in the first session against his rival who is the 16-1 outsider for the title.

But he was 100% clinical as he made Swail pay dearly for any kind of error.

Swail actually won the first frame of the day after Stevens had broken down on 41 when he missed a straightforward-looking red into the middle pocket.

A 45 clearance to the blue ensured the Northern Ireland player went ahead for the first time since the opening frame - but it was a false dawn.

Stevens then moved into overdrive with breaks of 78, 110 and 80 in successive frames to move into a 7-5 interval lead.

The century was his third of the match and followed on from the tournament best of 143 achieved by Stevens in the opening session on Thursday.

The match continued in the same vein after the break with runs of 39 and 36 sufficient to enable Stevens to put another frame on the board - and he then nipped in to steal frame 14 after Swail had looked poised to pull one back.

Stevens broke down on 65 after potting nine reds and eight blacks but Swail retaliated with 53 and the final pink and black at his mercy.

But he overcut the pink in trying to get the cue ball around the table for the black and Stevens needed no second invitation to pile on further agony. A long red set Stevens on his way to a 94 break in the penultimate frame of the session to leave Swail 10-5 in arrears.

But he gave himself a glimmer of hope by taking the last of the session with the aid of a 46 break.