Ronnie O'Sullivan into World Grand Prix semis but worried over form
Last Updated: 20/03/15 11:34pm
Ronnie O'Sullivan was highly critical of his own game despite moving into the semi-finals of the World Grand Prix in Llandudno with a 4-1 win over Graeme Dott.
The five-time world champion described his play as "diabolical" but it was still enough to see off the Scotsman, who O'Sullivan beat to claim his second world title in 2008.
Neither man made a century break, and O'Sullivan missed some shots he would usually manage with his eyes closed, but Dott could never get into the frames enough to trouble him.
Dott's biggest miss came in the fourth frame, when he failed to convert a green off the spot that would have taken him on his way to levelling the match at 2-2.
"Graeme has had a good tournament, been consistent and is always a tough match," O'Sullivan told ITV4.
"We both played poorly, I felt nervous for some reason and couldn't see the wood for the trees. It was strange, one of those evenings and it was lucky Graeme played as badly as me.
"I was sitting there thinking of how good Stephen Hendry and Steve Davis were and they started twitching, and thought 'is this my time?'. I missed so many balls, it was diabolical.
"I'm just relieved, tomorrow is another day, but you want to build momentum as this stage of a tournament."
O'Sullivan was denied the chance of a potential final against old nemesis Peter Ebdon when Martin Gould sent the veteran out 4-2.
The Rocket will face Stuart Bingham in the last four after he beat Mark Davis 4-0 in a low-scoring affair.
And Gould's opponent will be Judd Trump after the Bristolian potter produced a late rally to beat Mark Williams 4-3.
Trump managed to miss an easy pink in the third frame, handing the initiative and a 2-1 lead to Williams, but the younger man would ultimately rally to force a thrilling decider and on clinching the match he allowed himself to celebrate with a rare fist pump.
