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O'Sullivan through to Crucible semi-finals to face Hendry

01/05/2008

Ronnie O'Sullivan has qualified for the semi-finals of the World Snooker Championships following a 13-7 win over China's Liang Wenbo.

He will face seven-time winner Stephen Hendry in the next round and says he is looking forward to the challenge of playing one of the game's greats.

O'Sullivan and Liang were level at 4-4 following the first session of their match but the Englishman reeled-off seven of the next eight frames to claim a commanding lead.

The two-time champion made five breaks over 50 before notching breaks of 138 and 86.

Liang battled hard in the evening session and the players shared the opening four frames but O'Sullivan made a break of 79 in the 20th frame to clinch the match.

The 32-year-old believes he has an excellent opportunity to win anther world title having made it to the semi-finals.

He said: "I think that the pressure is off when you get to the semi-final stage. We know what to expect and we just have to go out and play.

"You either relish these situations or you don't - I do and Stephen Hendry does and I am looking forward to it.

"I love Stephen, he is a great champion and it is a privilege to play him. At this level it is all about competing against the greatest players, it should be a superb match."

In the remaining quarter-final Stephen Maguire lost out to Joe Perry in the deciding frame of their match.

The first session had ended 4-4 and they continued to track each other closely as the match progressed.

Each time one player looked to have created some daylight between himself and his opponent the other player would reel off a number of frames to get back in the match.

Eventually the game descended into a final-frame shootout, in which Perry held his nerve to clinch a semi-final meeting with Ali Carter.