Hawkins right on cue to thrash woeful Ding

SNOOKER: English potter is joined by compatriot Wilson in Crucible semis

Barry Hawkins and Kyren Wilson booked their places in the last four of the Betfred World Championship with ruthless demolitions of their quarterfinal opponents.

England’s Hawkins thrashed third seed Ding Junhui 13-5 to set up a semifinal showdown with either Mark Williams or Ali Carter, while compatriot Wilson will face Judd Trump or Scotland’s John Higgins after beating Mark Allen 13-6.

Both men took an 11-5 lead into the final session at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield and Hawkins swiftly won the two frames he needed against a woefully out-of-sorts Ding, finishing the surprisingly one-sided contest in style with a break of 117.

And although Allen kept his hopes alive with breaks of 54 and 40 in the opening frame, Wilson took the next two to gain a measure of revenge for losing to the Northern Irishman in the final of the Masters in January.

Hawkins, who has reached the semifinals or better in five of the last six years, said: “I’m in the semis but there’s still such a long way to go and there’s still some great players in.

“I’m not getting too excited, I’ve been here before and I know what it’s like to go out there and play terrible, so it can happen at any time. I’m obviously over the moon to get through and I thought I played pretty well. I felt like he gave up at the end there.

“I thought I punished him every time he made a mistake and when someone’s doing that against you, it’s easy to start to missing a few and I managed to keep him under a bit of pressure because he hadn’t been until then. There’s a lot on his shoulders as well.”

Wilson, who had lost in the quarterfinals in each of the last two years, said: “I definitely wouldn’t say it was the biggest win of my career, (but) it’s up there.

“It was always a goal of mine to reach the one-table set-up and I just can’t wait to get out there and experience it.

“You have to sometimes seize on your opponent when you sense a little bit of weakness and I could feel that Mark was maybe struggling a little bit towards the end of last night, so every little mistake that he made I felt like I punished it and played really well.”

I’m not getting too excited, I’ve been here before. BARRY HAWKINS