Ronnie O’Sullivan, Rob Milkins, Joe Perry and Craig Steadman will contest the semi-finals of the JenningsBet World Seniors Snooker Championship on Saturday at the Crucible Theatre.
O’Sullivan was given an early scare by a valiant Peter Lines in the quarter-finals, as the 56-year-old former professional scored breaks of 69 and 93 to take a 2-1 lead.
The seven-time world champion quickly switched into gear, however, as he levelled with a rapid break of 109 that saw a 10-second average shot time before completing the victory with contributions of 65 and 70.
Up next for ‘The Rocket’ will be a meeting with Milkins on Saturday afternoon after the former Welsh Open champion came from behind to defeat Brazil’s Igor Figueiredo 4-1.
The biggest upset of the quarter-finals saw six-time ranking event winner Ali Carter beaten in a black ball shootout by 43-year-old Steadman.
Carter had fired in a break of 131, the highest of the event so far, to force the decider but it was Steadman that pocketed the black ball to dramatically get over the line via a second successive shoot out.
Perry continued his impressive start to life on the World Seniors Snooker Tour as the reigning British Seniors Open champion took the last three frames against Matthew Stevens to earn a 4-1 success and set up a semi-final contest against Steadman on Saturday evening.
The semi-finals will take place on Saturday at 12pm and 7pm. How to watch.