Semi-finals set for 2024 International Championship as Ding Junhui stops World Champion Kyren Wilson


China's biggest snooker star Ding Junhui thrilled his adoring fans as he finished off with back-to-back century breaks to defeat reigning World Champion Kyren Wilson, 6-4.
It has been a difficult start to the season for Ding, and this was his first appearance in the last eight of a ranking tournament this term.
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Runs of 57, 72 and 84 helped the 37-year-old establish a 4-1 lead, but Wilson - who recently won the Northern Ireland Open and was on a 10-match winning streak - showed his resilience as he took the next three to level the tie up.
Ding was likely to be very frustrated by the scoreline, especially having lost frame seven when Wilson compiled a counter-clearance of 70 to win on the final black, but 'The Dragon' responded in superb style, freezing out the world number two with efforts of 129 and 123 in the closing stages.
It is nearly five years since Ding last won a ranking event; that most recent triumph came at the 2019 UK Championship. On home soil in China, Ding has not won any professional event since the 2017 World Open.
The 14-time ranking event champion could end both those unwanted streaks later this week.
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In the semi-finals, Ding will face Xu Si in an all-Chinese affair.
Xu is having the best week of his professional career, and the world number 49 is now guaranteed his biggest payday in the sport - just a few months after bettering that metric at the Xi'an Grand Prix.
On Tuesday, Xu made his second maximum 147 break in pro competition. On Wednesday, he saw off world number one Judd Trump. And on Thursday, he shaded world number 12 Gary Wilson, 6-5, coming back from two down with three to play.
Breaks of 75 and 61 helped 26-year-old Xu share the opening six frames of the last eight contest, although Wilson put himself in a strong position as runs of 105 and 136 in back-to-back frames moved him 5-3 ahead.
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Xu was not to be denied the second semi-final berth of his top tier career, though, (his first came at the 2017 Indian Open) as he constructed efforts of 58, 81 and 68 in winning the final three frames for an impressive recovery win, and possibly his biggest, so far, on the World Snooker Tour. He didn't allow Wilson to score a single point during that sequence.
Xiao Guodong wins tie and earns maiden top 16 ranking
Xiao Guodong is enjoying the best spell of his professional snooker career as he defeated Jackson Page, 6-4, to make the last four of the 2024 International Championship.
The result means that Xiao is now guaranteed to be inside the world's top 16 for the first time when the standings are revised following the conclusion of this competition. He will be a top seed for the upcoming UK Championship in York and will not need to go to the qualifying rounds.
It has been a thrilling few weeks for 35-year-old Xiao who first competed as a professional in 2007. Last month, he claimed his maiden ranking event crown at the Wuhan Open; today, he booked a place in the eighth ranking event semi-final of his career.
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Xiao trailed young Welshman Page, 2-1, but efforts of 135 and 110 - in successive frames either side of the mid-session interval - put him in front, before he also deposited the next two (50 break, frame 6) to reach the hill at 5-2 up.
Page - who is having a breakthrough 2024 - kept plugging away, though, as he took frames eight and nine to keep the contest alive, however, Xiao got the job done in the 10th frame with a crucial break of 73.
In the first best-of-19 frames semi-final on Friday, Xiao will meet Chris Wakelin who ousted John Higgins, 6-5.
Wakelin (62 break, frame six) led 4-2, but Higgins put himself on the brink of progression with three frames in-a-row, compiling a 112 to go 5-4 up. Wakelin, though, claimed frame ten to force the tie all the way.
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However, the match was pulled off at 5-5 due to the evening session starting in just over 30 minutes time - a decision that visibly upset both players, especially Higgins.
Having faced a nervy few hours waiting around for a table to be free, Higgins got in first in the decider but missed a green. Later in the frame, Wakelin crafted a decisive effort of 62 to reach the fourth ranking event semi-final of his career.
After defeating Shaun Murphy in the last 32 and Mark Williams in the last 16, this was the third world champion in as many days that Wakelin had eliminated.
If Wakelin gets the better of Xiao and makes the final, he will also move into the top 16 for the first time, and be seeded for the main venue stages of the UK Championship in York.
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All four quarter-final fixtures on Thursday went to either 10, or the maximum 11 frames.
For the second consecutive Chinese ranking event, three of the four semi-finalists are from the host nation.
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