Ronnie O’Sullivan fought again from 5-3 right down to beat Kyren Wilson 6-5 as he reached the Saudi Arabia Masters semi-finals.
Seven-time world champion O’Sullivan made breaks of 88 and 116 to ascertain an early 2-1 lead earlier than Wilson – who received the current Shanghai Masters having crushed the 49-year-old on the identical stage – knocked in 4 half centuries to maneuver inside a body of victory within the best-of-11 encounter.
However ‘The Rocket’, who has not received a rating occasion for 19 months and has barely performed competitively since January, compiled breaks of 110 and 118 as he reeled off the following three frames to triumph from behind for a second consecutive match.
O’Sullivan will face Chris Wakelin within the semi-finals of a match which affords a £500,000 high prize and is considered snooker’s ‘fourth main’ by organisers.
“It was a troublesome match and I needed to depend on Kyren to make a couple of errors,” mentioned O’Sullivan.
“I felt OK all night time however I’m nonetheless not taking part in sufficient good pictures consecutively. I throw in some dangerous ones. I can use my expertise, be affected person and make it exhausting for my opponent.
“I get handled very effectively right here, so to do effectively on this match was a giant ambition. Now I am within the semis, I would love to do even higher. We each had nice assist tonight from the followers, they had been cheering my title on the finish.
“I assume they bear in mind seeing me after I was younger and now I am almost 50, so that they know I will not be round for for much longer and so they need to see me play effectively in the direction of the top of my profession.”
Wakelin adopted up his 6-5 win over present world champion Zhao Xintong by defeating his fellow Englishman Barry Hawkins by the identical scoreline.
The 33-year-old is now assured £100,000, the most important quantity he has earned from one match.
Hawkins grew to become the newest sufferer of snooker’s so-called ‘Ding Curse’. On every of the previous 22 events that Ding Junhui has misplaced in a match, the participant to knock him out – on this case Hawkins – has misplaced within the subsequent spherical.
In the meantime, Elliot Slessor overcame a former Crucible winner in a deciding body for a 3rd consecutive day as he superior previous Mark Williams.
Slessor, who had already crushed John Higgins and Stuart Bingham, delivered 4 half centuries and a break of 130 earlier than profitable a tense eleventh body and can now play former observe companion Neil Robertson, who beat the in-form Ali Carter 6-4.
