John Higgins trailed Ronnie O'Sullivan 8-5 in their World Championship quarter‑final but won eight of the next 10 frames to prevail 13-10 as O'Sullivan's challenge for a fourth world title foundered on the rocks of inconsistency.
"I had enough chances to win, more than I expected. I just didn't take them," said O'Sullivan, who nevertheless sounded a note of hope in disclosing that his "work in progress" with Dr Steve Peters, a Sheffield psychiatrist, had given him "a new way of looking at things". "It's not the playing that's hard, it's the in‑between bits [but] my game isn't up to the standard it needs to be."
Higgins, meanwhile, revealed how concerned he was in the afternoon session: "I wasn't getting the cue through the ball. I was expecting to be 10-6 down. The only thing that got me back in was Ronnie missing."
At 8-5, 34-0 O'Sullivan missed an easy red which cost him 66 and ultimately the frame; at 8-6, 30-0 a forcing black from its spot stayed out; later, needing only a simple yellow and one of the three remaining reds, he miscued so farcically that he could not forebear to smile. Higgins was not playing perfectly either but his will was unshakable. His long green, allied to a benign kiss on the brown, led to a winning clearance and when O'Sullivan, at 8-7, sent a long red well wide of the target, Higgins made 80 to equalise.
A quixotic gesture cost O'Sullivan the first frame of the evening. After obtaining the second of the two snookers he had needed, he was awarded a free ball but did not believe it was and not only declined to accept it but put Higgins in again, a costly choice as Higgins promptly potted this frame ball.
With 116 O'Sullivan was level at 9-9 but his unsafe safety shot left the frame ball yellow over a pocket in the next before Higgins arrived at 11-9 with a run of 65 and 12-9 with a clearance of 73 after O'Sullivan had missed on 53. O'Sullivan's hopes flickered briefly with a flying 94 but Higgins, from an initial fluke, applied the closure with 79 to earn a semi-final against Mark Williams, who had earlier seen off Mark Allen 13-5.
"Time to shine," Judd Trump tweeted and duly did as a clearance of 67 from 43 behind and a break of 75 gave him the two frames he needed to oust Graeme Dott, last year's runner-up, 13-5. "Judd played phenomenally well. He slaughtered me," said Dott, also the 2006 champion. "If he plays as well as that he could win it but the championship is supposed to test every aspect of your game and we haven't seen yet how he'll do if he stops potting or falls behind."
Trump admitted that his China Open title this month and his progress here has made him "feel a little bit invincible" although he remains mindful of the need to "keep focused and not get carried away".
He will need to be against Ding Junhui, who became the first Chinese semi-finalist here by beating the world No3 Mark Selby 13-10. Trailing 10-6, Selby made breaks of 55, 66, 89 and 82 in reeling off the first four frames of the evening and also led 53-0 in the next only to lose it on the black. Two more close frames, winning one on the blue, the clincher on the black, saw Ding over the line.
