World Champion Kyren Wilson held off a Ronnie O'Sullivan fightback to edge a pulsating Xi'an Grand Prix semi-final clash 6-4 and make the 15th ranking event final of his career.
Victory for 32-year-old Wilson reaffirms his form after a rocky start to the campaign. The Englishman was whitewashed 6-0 by Zhou Yuelong in his first knockout appearance since winning the World Championship. He is now just one win away from capturing a seventh ranking title.
It is a second straight defeat for O’Sullivan at the hands of the Warrior, who prevailed 6-5 in the 2021 UK Championship quarter-finals. However, O’Sullivan still leads the head-to-head standings 6-4.
Wilson had moved himself to the cusp of victory in today’s clash, when breaks of 57, 74, 64 and 74 helped him into a commanding 5-1 advantage.
O’Sullivan wasn’t going down without a fight and rallied with contributions of 87 and 55 to stay in contention at 5-3, before a hugely dramatic ninth.
Wilson had appeared to be in control, after fluking the third last red. However, a superb clearance of 37 helped O’Sullivan to force a re-spotted black. He returned the favour, with a fluked double to the top left to pull within one.
The momentum appeared to be with the Rocket, but Wilson summoned a match winning break of 102 saw him over the line to book a place in the final against either Judd Trump or Daniel Wells. The winner tomorrow will take home a top prize of £177,000.
"When Ronnie fluked the black to make it 5-4, the crowd went mad in here and that created a really good atmosphere. I made a good one visit to close it out," said world number three Wilson. "The crowd have been fantastic and this is a great venue. It is really good fun to play in.
"I've really prepared hard for this event and the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters, which comes straight after. My wife and kids are out in Dubai at the moment, we were going to have a little holiday there before Saudi, but unfortunately they are going to have to wait a little bit longer.
"Both Judd and Daniel are really nice lads. There is an argument to say Judd is the best player in the world right now. It is good for him that someone around his age group, in myself, is coming along and trying to compete with him. In the past it has been the Class of 92, Shaun Murphy, Mark Selby and Neil Robertson all of the time. Daniel is a great player, good family man and works really hard. I'm to see him doing well too."