2016 World Championship (Day 11) - Ding is the man

Ding Junhui beat Mark Williams 13-3 with a session to spare, in order to become the first semi-finalist of this year's Betfred World Championship.

"The Chinese Sensation", who had to win three matches so he could take part in "The Crucible madness" needed just two sessions to get in the semis of the World Championship.

Although Williams was the one to break the ice and took the opening frame, Ding fired with breaks of 74 and 55 to get into the leading position. Still, the mid-session interval was finding the lads stuck at 2-2.

When returning after the 15-minute break, Ding found no difficulty in winning the remaining four frames of the session, breaks if 58, 53, 54 and 74 being responsible for a 6-2 lead.

The second session, which was also going to shortly become the last one, started on the same note, Ding continuing his aggressive cruise towards the semi-finals and adding four more frames to his collection thanks to breaks of 109, 52, 95 and 73.

Little could have be done as Mark Williams was now trailing 10-2, but the Welshman cashed one more frame before Ding could wrap things up with top breaks of 68 and 76.


Mark Selby looks pretty good to also land in the semis, as he's leading Kyren Wilson 10-6.

"The Jester" started by taking the first two frames of the day on the colours to which he added four more in a blink of an eye by hitting in breaks of 69, 101 and 99 to fly 6-0 up.

Wilson fought back and grabbed the last frames of the session and continued by adding three more when the second session started.

Selby, on the other hand pushed back and got two more frames under his belt to go at 8-5 up, before Kyren could made an 87 break and pull back one more.

The last two frames of the session surrendered to Selby's skills and top break of 54, so the Leicester-player is currently just three-frames away from a place in the semis.


After winning a genuine thriller against Ronnie O'Sullivan, Barry Hawkins looks in a bit of trouble as he is currently being led 7-1 by Marco Fu.

Fu took off by winning the first five frames of the session (breaks of 73, 76 and 81 were part of the special package) before Hawkins could dare and break the ice.

Runs of 66, 50 and 57 were giving Marco the last three frames, thus the Hong Long cue-man is in a pretty comfortable position, 7-1 up.

The Scotsmen battle is featuring the names of John Higgins and Alan McManus, the first named one having to recover from being 3-1 down.

Despite taking the opener, Higgins had to just sit and watch as his opponent started his cruise sustained by solid breaks of 114, 78 and 56.

Still, by the end of the session he managed to turn-tables thanks to runs of 51 and 75 to lead McManus, 5-3.

Day 12 of the World Championship match schedule:

10am
Alan McManys v John Higgins
Kyren Wilson v Mark Selby

2.30pm
Marco Fu v Barry Hawkins

7pm
Alan McManys v John Higgins
Marco Fu v Barry Hawkins

Photo credit (1): World Snooker