Crowd favourite Ding Junhui knocked defending champion Peter Ebdon out of the China Open to book a semi-final date with Mark Allen.
Chinese star to face young Northern Irishman in China semis
Crowd favourite Ding Junhui knocked defending champion Peter Ebdon out of the China Open to book a semi-final date with Mark Allen, after he squeezed past Stephen Hendry.
Both experienced veterans fell to their younger counterparts in the first two quarter-finals in Beijing, and now Ding and Allen will fight it out for a place in the final.
Northern Irishman Allen had to produce a stirring comeback against seven-time world champion Hendry as he trailed 4-2 at one stage before winning in a deciding frame.
Hendry has looked back to his best in the Far East, and had one foot in the last four with a break of 126 helping him to a 4-2 lead, but Allen hit back with three frames on the spin - including a 77 in the decider.
"At 4-2 down I still believed I could win, and I held myself together well to win the last three frames," said Allen. "I can take a lot of confidence from today's result, although I will need to improve in the next round.
Big game
"To play Ding in China is the sort of game we practice for. There will be a big crowd and good atmosphere, and with two young, attacking players, it should be entertaining."
Ding delighted the home fans as he dumped defending champion Ebdon out of the tournament with a 5-2 success for the 23-year-old.
The Chinese star raced into a 4-0 lead thanks to breaks of 93, 121 and 92, but former world champion Ebdon typically dragged himself back into the contest by winning the next two.
Ding kept calm though, and finally sealed his passage through in the seventh frame to maintain his hope of adding a second ranking title of the season following his UK Championship success.
"I played ok. I know Peter is a cautious player but I won the first two frames in one visit so I made it difficult for him," said Ding.
Safety
"In the past I was too attacking, but now I have learned a better balance between attack and defence. My safety will need to be good against Mark Allen."
In the afternoon's quarter-finals, Mark Williams and Ali Carter progressed with comfortable 5-1 victories against Marco Fu and Mark King respectively.
Former world champion Williams raced into a 3-0 lead against Fu, highlighted by a break of 116 in the third frame.
Hong Kong's Fu got on the scoreboard following a long fourth, but Williams closed out the encounter with back-to-back frames.
Williams will meet Carter in the semi-finals after the 30-year-old won the final four frames against King to seal his passage.
King made a break of 74 to level the match at 1-1, but his best effort thereafter was just 22 as Williams exploited his opponent's inconsistency to close out the match.
