Riyadh Season Snooker Championship: Ronnie O’Sullivan cruises past Ding Junhui

Ronnie O’Sullivan cruised past Ding Junhui to reach the semi-finals of the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship with a 4-0 win in Saudi Arabia.

Seven-time world champion O’Sullivan raced into a 2-0 lead before making consecutive breaks of 129 and 113 to claim victory.

China’s Ding failed to register a point in the final two frames as O’Sullivan finished with an impressive 84% pot success rate.

The 49-year-old Englishman will face Mark Allen in Friday’s semi-final.

Earlier on Thursday, Mark Williams edged past world number one Judd Trump to win 4-3 and book his place in the semi-finals.

The match was finely poised at 2-2 before Englishman Trump made a 107 break to claim the fifth frame and move to within one of victory.

Welshman Williams levelled to force a decider and then, trailing 34-8 in the final frame, made a break of 68 to clinch victory.

Three-time world champion Williams, who turns 50 next year, set up a semi-final tie with Luca Brecel.

“Judd looked very good tonight, he didn’t look like missing,” said Williams.

“He has beaten me in a lot of deciding frame to it’s nice to win one.”

Belgian Brecel booked his place in the last four with a 4-3 victory over world champion Kyren Wilson.

Brecel led 42-1 in the final frame against England’s Wilson before missing a routine red to hand his opponent a chance.

But Wilson potted just one red before Brecel returned to the table to secure his progress.

“It was a good game overall, we both played some good stuff. At the end it was really tense,” said Brecel.

“I thought he would clear up. When I came back to the table I just tried to stay composed. This is exactly what I need, to win these games against top players like Kyren.”

Northern Ireland’s Allen reached the semi-finals with an impressive 4-2 win over Mark Selby.

Englishman Selby made a clinical 68 clearance to move 2-1 in front but Allen claimed the next three frames, including runs of 76 and 75, to cruise to victory.