Rampant Ronnie O’Sullivan and Kyren Wilson seal Players Championship Semi-Final spots

Jamie Shaw in Players Championship 25 February 2021

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Frustrated O’Sullivan scrapes past Ding at the Players Championship

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Record-equalling Ronnie O’Sullivan recovers to reach Players Championship final

Ronnie O’Sullivan in action (Photo by ChinaImages/SIPA USA/PA Images)

Ronnie O’Sullivan and Kyren Wilson advanced to the Semi-Finals of the 2021 Players Championship with commanding victories over Jack Lisowski and Neil Robertson respectively.

Reigning World Champion O’Sullivan remained in contention for a third Players Championship title by thrashing a helpless Lisowski 6-1 in Milton Keynes.

O’Sullivan, who edged past Ding Junhui in a deciding frame in Round One, continued his superb spell of form by firing in two centuries on his way to a rapid victory.

“I felt good, played decent and cued alright,” said O’Sullivan.

“It’s nice when you play well, you get out there and everything feels really easy and you think ‘what’s the problem with this game? Why do I struggle sometimes?’

“That’s just how the game is, you have to take the rough with the smooth.

“When you’re playing as many matches as I have been, the law of averages says you’re going to put in a performance like that.

“When you get older, you just don’t recover that quickly. Last week really took a lot out of me.

“I’ve been walking around like a zombie for the last three or four days, I’m just absolutely knackered but that’s just what happens when you get older.”

Runner-up in the Welsh Open last Sunday, O’Sullivan is still out to claim his first silverware of the season and underlined his status as the tournament favourite by sweeping aside Lisowski.

He raced into a 4-0 lead at the interval with breaks of 63, 79, 124 and 93, affording Lisowski a mere 19 points in reply.

A magnificent break of 125 made it five frames on the spin, before Lisowski eventually stopped the rot with breaks of 57 and 68 in frame six.

However, O’Sullivan swiftly shrugged off any chances of a fightback as he killed off the contest with a break of 59 to set up a meeting with Barry Hawkins on Friday.

The Rocket was joined in reaching the Last Four by the man he defeated in last year’s World Championship final – Kyren Wilson.

Wilson pulled off a dominant 6-2 success over Robertson in the afternoon session with two century breaks to his name.

The world number five, who thrashed Ryan Day 6-1 in his opener, picked up from where he left off as he stormed into a 3-0 lead with breaks of 130 and 53 in the process.

Robertson got off the mark prior to the interval with a break of 55 before closing the gap to 3-2 courtesy of a clinical break of 101.

Wilson, though, reeled off three on the spin for the second time to close out the match, adding consecutive breaks of 95, 126 and 80.

He will now face either John Higgins or Mark Selby in Saturday’s second Semi-Final.

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