Hawkins swoops into semi-finals

Barry Hawkins is through to the semi-finals of the Betfair World Championship
1 May 2013

Barry Hawkins scuppered Ding Junhui's big chance of reaching a first Betfair World Championship final as he ended China's hopes of Crucible glory.

Kent cueman Hawkins turned a 9-7 overnight lead into a 13-7 victory to reach his first semi-final in Sheffield, with former Masters and UK Championship winner Ding going down tamely.

The path to the final looked to have opened up in Ding's favour, with the likes of Neil Robertson, Stephen Maguire and Mark Allen having been ousted from his side of the draw, while Hawkins knocked out world number one Mark Selby.

But any sense that Hawkins' victory against Selby may have been a one-off was dispelled emphatically on Wednesday.

With millions of Ding supporters watching at home in China, their man gave a flat display, not for the first time in a morning session.

Hawkins will face Ricky Walden or Michael White in the last four, giving him an outstanding chance of reaching the final.

The semi-final stage sees the stage set-up altered, going from a two-table scenario to one table, and that will be a new experience in Sheffield for Hawkins.

Hawkins said: "I was a bit calmer than I expected, especially in the last frame. I felt pretty good. I was pleased to get over the line. I can't believe it; it hasn't sunk in yet at all.

"It means everything to be in my first semi-final. I've been trying so hard for so long to make some sort of breakthrough.

"I managed to make it this season by winning the Australian Open and being consistent but to come here and get to the one-table set-up is a dream come true. I'm delighted for everybody that's helped me."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in