• World Snooker Championship

O'Sullivan seals semi-final spot

Ronnie O'Sullivan remains on course for another Crucible final appearance © PA Photos

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Ronnie O'Sullivan booked his place in the semi-finals of the World Snooker Championship after completing a 13-4 victory over Stuart Bingham.

'The Rocket' required just one frame to reach the last four after dominating on Wednesday morning to lead 12-4, and after Bingham delayed the charge of O'Sullivan, he was unable to prevent the world champion in the evening from moving into the semi-finals. O'Sullivan will now face Judd Trump after he edged out Shaun Murphy 13-12 in a classic tussle.

"I am competitive and I hate losing," O'Sullivan said after the match. "I will fight to the death and I will give it everything."

On the tie with Trump, O'Sullivan added: "Judd is a brilliant player. I think he gets a bit of an unfair time. He likes his clothes and his cars and there is nothing wrong with that. Every time I go to the club, there he is there at half past ten in the morning, playing for a few hours before coming back in the evening. He plays more than me."

Bingham arrived at the Crucible in good touch, having won the Premier League and been in two ranking finals, but he ran into an O'Sullivan in breathtaking form.

O'Sullivan was nothing short of sensational in Tuesday's opening session, knocking in two centuries and a string of other decent breaks to open up a 7-1 lead, and he carried the momentum into Wednesday morning.

If Bingham had any hopes of a revival, he had to start well. But O'Sullivan simply did not allow that the happen as he knocked in a couple of quite superb reds to confirm his cueing was in top trim.

Bingham had chances in the second frame of the day but he missed a red along the top cushion and O'Sullivan stepped in with a half century.

It was a similar story in the 11th frame, with Bingham odds-on to take the frame only to miss a brown down the bottom cushion and let O'Sullivan step in to hoover up the colours. And he took the final frame before the interval to move 11-1 ahead.

O'Sullivan kept the pedal down upon the resumption and his third century of the match, a 104, moved him to within one frame of his 10th World Championship semi-final appearance.

O'Sullivan intended to wrap the quarter-final up with a session to spare, but a couple of routine misses on the black enabled Bingham to force a final session a few hours later- albeit for one frame as O'Sullivan wasted little time to reach the last four.

Earlier in the day, Barry Hawkins reached the semi-finals as he wrapped up a 13-7 win over two-time UK champion Ding Junhui. Hawkins will face twice ranking event winner Ricky Walden after he defeated qualifier Michael White 13-6.

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