Ronnie O'Sullivan knocked out of World Snooker Championship by Zhao Xintong

The match looked to be perfectly poised resuming at 4-4 on Friday morning, but Zhao produced a spellbinding display of snooker that O'Sullivan just couldn't live with, meaning the seven-time champion was defeated with a session to spare.

Zhao, UK champion in 2021, was unstoppable in the morning session, breaking the back of the match by reeling off an astonishing eight frames without reply as O'Sullivan spent the most part confined to his chair.

The Chinese reeled off breaks of 57, 112, 82, 57, 67, 115 and 87 in that blitz, and would add further runs of 62, 128, 85, 63 and 88 to reach his first World Championship final.

The early warning signs were there for O'Sullivan when he missed a tricky black early in the opening frame of the morning, and though he fought valiantly when returning in the evening, there was a sense of sadness in watching someone of such genius in such turmoil.

O’Sullivan told the BBC afterwards: "Zhao played good, he deserved his victory. He’s been brilliant all tournament. All credit to Zhao.

"I’ve been awful for quite a while. Them performances are in there, and they’ve been coming out quite regularly."

The 49-year-old had briefly raised hopes of mounting a special comeback when taking the first two frames of the night, but Zhao was quickly back on track when winning back-to-back frames within the blink of an eye.

O'Sullivan did manage to pull another frame back with break of 57, his only fifty-plus break of the whole day, and it would prove his final contribution of any note.

The match was soon won, Zhao reeling off the next three frames to put O'Sullivan out of his misery and seal his own date with destiny on Sunday.

He said: "I can’t believe that. I need to say thank you to Ronnie because he helped me a lot before.

"I just tried to enjoy the Crucible here. It’s my first time to play single table here.

"It’s an amazing time for me. I’m just trying to enjoy it because I don’t know how many times I’ll be here."

Williams digs deep to draw level

The second semi-final is turning into a vastly different contest, with a grandstand finish seemingly on the cards after Mark Williams fought back to draw level with Judd Trump at the conclusion of the second session.

Resuming 5-3 ahead, Trump looked to have made a decisive move when winning the first two frames of the afternoon, the first after Williams had broken down in the balls.

However, Williams rallied in typical fashion, putting together breaks of 105 and 84 as won three frames on the bounce.

Trump stopped the rot by taking the next, but Williams held his nerve to edge a tactical frame 15, before finishing with a run of 96 to set things up nicely ahead of Saturday.

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