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Judd Trump charged into the semi-finals, beating Luca Brecel in a high-quality match, while Ronnie O’Sullivan repelled a stirring fightback from Si Jiahui at the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield.
Trump will face Mark Williams in the last four after the Welshman’s epic 13-12 victory over John Higgins, which went to the final black. O’Sullivan will meet the Chinese sensation Zhao Xintong in what promises to be a mouthwatering clash.
Trump reeled off five straight frames after starting the final session of a high-octane contest at 8-8 to complete a 13-8 win over fellow former champion Brecel. In doing so he made two more centuries that took his total number of hundred breaks for the season to 104, equalling then surpassing Neil Robertson’s 11-year-old record as he sealed his semi-final spot in style.
Trump insisted: “I don’t really care about that record. I was just happy to make the breaks at the important times, no matter what they were. It was just about digging in and putting him under pressure.”
Looking ahead to the semi-finals he said: “Mark came through an absolute epic. It was a great advert for snooker. Mark has been in quite a few classics at the Crucible, and it just shows the hunger and determination of the Class of 92.”
O’Sullivan, the seven-time champion, twice saw his 22-year-old opponent pull back to within two frames, but held his nerve and a break to black of 76 confirmed his 14th appearance in the Crucible’s last four.
Si, a shock semi-finalist on his debut two years ago, showed few signs of repeating that form in the early stages and O’Sullivan was barely forced to break sweat as he took the first frame of the second session to ease into a 7-2 lead.
O’Sullivan, playing his first tournament since he dumped his cue in a bin after crashing out of the Championship League in January, had impressed in patches in his wins over Ali Carter and Pang Junxu, and Si did not appear to be the man to test his limits.
However, after starting the final session four frames adrift at 10-6, Si’s fluency showed signs of returning, and with O’Sullivan’s game becoming increasingly scattered with errors, the underdog won three from four to reach the interval just two behind at 11-9.
Si had a big chance to make it 11-10 but missed a yellow and a vintage run of 36 from O’Sullivan took him one frame away from victory.
Still playing fluently, Si got in first in the 22nd frame and fashioned a 43-point lead, before a miss on the brown served up a chance which O’Sullivan seized to confirm his clash against rising star Zhao.
Williams held off a superb fightback from his fellow former winner John Higgins to triumph in a last-frame decider and reach his eighth World Championship semi-final at the Crucible. The veteran duo, who have won seven world titles between them, were locked at 8-8 at the end of their second session before Williams put himself on the verge by taking all four frames on Wednesday’s resumption.
But Higgins, four times the champion, though, dug in after the mid-session interval with breaks of 94, 114 and 67 to force a decider, which Williams took after his opponent missed a tense blue on the top cushion to seal a 13-12 victory.
Williams, who had trailed 5-1 earlier in the match, made the most of some unforced errors from Higgins to edge in front and then extend his lead to 10-8. A couple of half-century breaks from the Welshman, who claimed the last of his three world titles in 2018, meant he was seemingly closing in on victory at 12-8 heading into the interval.
However, Higgins clawed a frame back before firing in 94 to move within two. Williams then gave away a careless foul after touching the blue with his trailing arm when he was leaning over to pot a long red with the rest.
Higgins made the most of the opportunity, digging in again to build a fine 114 break. The Scot missed a frame-ball red along the bottom cushion after a break of 67 in the next but was still able to force a final-frame shootout.
With both men running out of position when looking set, the deciding frame turned into a safety battle before Higgins caught the bump on the middle pocket, which allowed Williams in to edge in front 56-52.
Higgins sunk a red with the rest after Williams missed a tricky long red, then rolled the brown in on the top cushion only to miss the blue. Williams clipped it in before finishing off the pink and black to seal a dramatic 74-69 victory.
Williams told the BBC: “I was drained this morning. Two tough sessions, I didn’t finish until half 10. It’s top out there, especially the older you get. You play all day, the next day you play in the morning. It’s just a pleasure playing now. We got the standing ovation walking in and everyone was cheering. You have to enjoy it because you don’t know how many times I’ll be coming back here.”
Zhao duly picked up the one frame he required to turn a 12-4 overnight advantage over Chris Wakelin into a 13-5 victory that sealed his place in the semi-finals for the first time. Zhao, playing as an amateur after returning from a 20-month ban for his part in a match-fixing scandal, had to come through four rounds of qualifying to reach the final stages at the Crucible and has had little trouble in reaching the last four, where he will play O’Sullivan.
