Mark Allen
Former Masters and UK champion on BBC Two

We can talk all day about some of the mistakes Ali made, but you just have to hold your hands up sometimes and say: "That is ridiculous snooker from Ronnie O'Sullivan".

He can't play any better than that - that's flawless snooker for five frames. It was a close match 90 minutes ago and it turned into a comfortable 10-4 win.

BBC Two

Ali Carter, speaking to BBC Two: "I was always in it at 5-4, but Ronnie got going. I kept finding myself in awkward positions, and it went from bad to worse.

"It begins to get a bit embarrassing, but against the best of all time it is not easy. He was the much better player today.

"It's not the end [to the season] I wanted, but Ronnie is the hardest first-round draw, the one no-one wants to play."

Stephen Hendry
Seven-time world champion on BBC Two

He's been out of the game for a while, you wonder if he is still going to be as good at close matches out - here's your answer. The first sniff of winning the match and it's done.

Image source, PA Media

A handshake and a few words between Ali Carter and his vanquisher, and we are done in double quick time.

Five frames won, three of them via centuries - vintage O'Sullivan.

Carter was way below his best, but O'Sullivan's ability turned this from a tight-fought encounter into a rout.

Ronnie O'Sullivan could see this out with a break of 131, which would be his biggest of the match.

It would be a fitting end.

There are six reds remaining in a pack - until Ronnie O'Sullivan smashes them open via backspin, surely setting him up to see out this frame and match.

Ali Carter, in his chair, looks morose.

I think I know which of the below statements is correct.

Carter leaves O'Sullivan with an open goal on a red, and he screws back down towards the black with loose reds surrounding it.

Image source, Getty Images

And we are back.

Can Ali Carter force us to go a bit longer? Or will Ronnie wrap this up sharpish?

Mark Allen
Former Masters and UK champion on BBC Two

We talked at the top of the show that Ronnie needed to get better [from his performance in the first session] and hasn't he done so!

He's made two 50s, a 70 and two centuries in those four frames.

It's just been a dream start for Ronnie today.

Luca Brecel was knocked out in the first round of his world title defence by David Gilbert last year and is behind early on in round one this time around.

Ryan Day has won three of the first four to take a 3-1 lead into the interval, a 67 break getting the job done for the Welshman in frame four.

Brecel only scored 75 points in those first four frames, with a highest break of 26.

John Parrott
1991 world champion on BBC Two

The match is over.

Ali needed a good start at the beginning of the match, which he didn't get but clawed himself back in. Today he needed a really good start and he didn't get one.

Ronnie has just got stronger and he will punish you if you don't do your stuff.

To give some context as to how good Ronnie O'Sullivan has been today, he might be the fifth seed at the Worlds this year - but he was not necessarily the overwhelming favourite against Ali Carter.

Carter had to come through qualifying - and battled a neck problem in doing so - but at 18 in the world is the highest ranked unseeded player at this year's tournament.

This was a match which could easily have passed for a quarter-final; O'Sullivan has made it look like an exhibition at times today.

Michael Emons
BBC Sport at the Crucible Theatre

Image source, PA Media

Ronnie O'Sullivan sits in the top half of the draw, where world champions Kyren Wilson and Neil Robertson have already been eliminated, as have 12th seed Zhang Anda and last year's runner-up Jak Jones.

Mark Selby and Mark Allen are still lurking in that half, with Selby beginning his campaign later on today.

But, in this form, O'Sullivan is going to take some stopping. He has been near-flawless, with Ali Carter completely frozen out and not scoring a single point in three of the four frames we've seen so far.

It looked finely poised at the end of the first session. It is turning into a procession.

Imperious.

Four frames from four in this session, and Ronnie O'Sullivan is one away from the last 16.

O'Sullivan could be on for his second century within four frames here.

After a 117 break earlier, he could now notch up to 123.

If O'Sullivan sees this frame out - which he surely will - then Carter will need to win all remaining six to reach the second round.

O'Sullivan is clearing up now, more potting practice. Even the shots where he's having to spider over balls with his splayed fingers are causing him no issue.

You can watch the first session between Luca Brecel and Ryan Day by clicking on the "Watch and listen" tab at the top of this page.

Day has just taken the third frame to restore his one-frame advantage.

Stephen Hendry
Seven-time world champion on BBC Two

It just shows that when you're playing the very best players in the world, you have to be on it from frame one and shot one.

Ali wasn't, he played two or three bad shots in the first frame [of the afternoon], Ronnie got into a rhythm and there's been no way back.

And so, with crushing inevitability from Carter's perspective, O'Sullivan is back at the table and scoring.

Squint, and you could think you were watching the 2013 World Championship.

When your luck is in, it is right in.

A miss from O'Sullivan appears to leave Carter quids in among the reds - however there isn't a single clean pot among them.