O'Sullivan moves past Si to reach Crucible last four

Ronnie O'Sullivan booked his place in the World Championship semi-finals with a 13-9 win over Si Jiahui as he maintained his bid for a record eighth title in the modern era.

Leading 10-6 from Wednesday morning's session, the 49-year-old Englishman lost three of the first four frames in the evening as Si closed to 11-9.

However, a sublime long red paved the way for him to win a tight 23rd frame and he completed his victory with a break of 74.

O'Sullivan, who has won a record 41 ranking events over a remarkable career, will now take on former UK champion Zhao Xintong in the last four.

"I am just grinding it out. I have had some work done on my cue today and I am probably going to have to try and get a new ferrule and tip because it feels awful," he told BBC Sport.

"I'm playing awful and the cue feels awful so it is the worst situation to be in as a snooker player. I don't think I can get any worse."

Meanwhile, world number one Judd Trump set a new century record for a single season as he powered past Luca Brecel 13-8 to set up a semi-final meeting with three-time champion Mark Williams.

The Welshman, 49, won 13-12 in a Crucible classic black ball decider against John Higgins.

Having not played competitively since snapping his cue at the Championship League in January, O'Sullivan expressed reservations over his ability to be competitive when he arrived in Sheffield.

However, after seeing the likes of Mark Selby, Mark Allen and Kyren Wilson depart early from his side of the draw, he is now just one win away from a ninth Crucible final.

And on this evidence he may take some stopping, despite his suggestions that he has been the beneficiary of his opponents' shortcomings.

While the errors from his victories over Ali Carter and Pang Junxu were still present against Si, particularly from long range, nobody as yet has shown themselves capable of ruthlessly exposing them.

Si, a semi-finalist as recently as 2023, was left to rue several missed opportunities to take frames after being presented chances and then found that his opponent was simply too assured once handed a good opportunity of his own.

"He played poor and let me off the hook," O'Sullivan said.

"I got lucky again. I have tried to give it my best and I am just hanging in there.

"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.

"Look at Judd and Mark [Williams] and Zhao, I won't be able to get away with the standard I have played the last three matches at."

The encounter between Trump and Williams will pit the game's two most decorated left-handed players against each other in a repeat of the 2022 semi-final.

Trump edged that nerve-shredding contest 17-16 against the Welshman and expended little energy on Wednesday evening to dispatch Brecel.

Unlike the afternoon session when 2019 winner Trump did well to emerge at 8-8 after watching Belgium's Brecel produce an array of stunning pots, once play resumed the Englishman was in the ascendency.

He set the tone with a superb 115 in the opening frame to equal Neil Robertson's landmark total of 103 centuries set in 2013-14.

And he eclipsed the Australian in the very next frame with a run of 116.

"I don't really care about that record," Trump said.

"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."

Nevertheless it brought up Trump's 11th century at this year's World Championship, with the record of 16 in a single Crucible campaign, set by Stephen Hendry in 2002 and equalled by Mark Williams in 2022, now in his sights.

Brecel, who won the world title two years ago simply had no answer, scoring a meagre 19 points from the first four frames, and when he missed a brown to the left middle Trump wrapped up the contest.

Seven-time world champion, Stephen Hendry

Judd Trump is all about bullying the table, and Mark Williams is all about guile. It's going to be incredible in the semis.

But it's Zhao Xintong I can't wait to watch in a one-table situation, he has breezed through the tournament. My head says a Trump v O'Sullivan final but it will be some story if Zhao gets to the final.