Ronnie O’Sullivan holds off Si Jiahui as Judd Trump surges into semi-final with Mark Williams
Ronnie O’Sullivan repelled a stirring fightback from Si Jiahui to set up a mouthwatering semi-final against Zhao Xintong at the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield.
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.
O’Sullivan was predictably downbeat afterwards, insisting it was Si’s poor performance in the early stage of the match, rather than his own late revival, that paved his way to another unconvincing victory.
“I got off the hook again,” O’Sullivan said. “He played pretty poorly in the first two sessions and he did better in the third session but he didn’t finish the frames off and I stole a few.
“I have relied on other people to win and that doesn’t feel good for me. I always feel better when I force the opening and put the pressure on my opponents. You feel a lot better when you’ve won the match rather than they’ve lost it.”
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 in the earlier rounds, and Si did not appear to be the man to test his limits.
But 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.
The 28-year-old completed his serene progress to the last four as he took the one frame he required to complete an emphatic 13-5 win over Chris Wakelin.
Trump reeled off five straight frames after starting the final session of a high-octane contest all-square, including two more centuries that took his total number of hundred breaks for the season to 104.
That saw him equal then surpass Neil Robertson’s 11-year-old record as 35-year-old Trump sealed his last-four clash against Welsh veteran Mark Williams 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.”
The 2019 champion had looked shell-shocked through an explosive afternoon session in which Brecel, showing glimpses of the form that swept him to the world title two years ago, completed a run of six straight frames as he blazed into a 7-5 lead.
Brecel, who had trailed 5-1 during Tuesday’s opening session, polished off three centuries of his own in a run that threatened to extend Trump’s long wait for a second world crown.
Crucially, Trump chiselled out the final frame of the afternoon session to go in at 8-8, and after a break of less than two hours, the world number one stepped up the pace when it mattered to complete victory with something to spare.
“It was obviously a tough second session,” added Trump. “I think Luca played brilliant snooker. I just had to grind it out and battle away and I was very happy to get out at 8-8.”
Trump relished his semi-final clash with Williams, who earlier held off a superb fightback from fellow former winner John Higgins to triumph in a last-frame decider and reach his eighth Crucible semi-final.
“Mark came through an absolute epic,” said Trump. “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’.”
Williams and Higgins, 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 brink by taking all four frames on Wednesday’s resumption.
Four-time champion Higgins, though, dug in following 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.
“There was not one bit of nerves,” Williams said to the BBC afterwards. “I don’t really get it. I’ve only had nerves a handful of times in my career.
“I wasn’t thinking he (Higgins) would miss it. From 12-8 to 12-all I had not done much wrong and I was thinking, ‘what can I do?’
“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 you’ll be coming back here.”
PA
