Snooker: Higgins glad of breaks in Ronnie fight

John HIGGINS feared he was heading out of the Betfred.com World Championship until an erratic run from Ronnie O'Sullivan presented the Scot with another shot at Crucible glory.

Tonight, Higgins, the three-time former champion, will take on Mark Williams, winner in Sheffield in 2000 and 2003, in the first of four semi-final sessions.

But the 35-year-old Scot was fearing the worst yesterday when O'Sullivan looked to be taking charge of their quarter-final tussle during the afternoon, and admitted he had O'Sullivan's collapse to thank for his 13-10 success.

The ever unpredictable O'Sullivan frequently led frames before missing and letting Higgins in to pinch them. Higgins said: "At 8-5 down I thought I was on my way out of the tournament because Ronnie's the best front-runner we've got.

"You can forget it sometimes. So it was lucky for me he missed a few he wouldn't normally miss."

Williams was a 13-5 quarter-final winner over Northern Ireland's Mark Allen, and has reached the last four for the first time since winning in 2003.

China's Ding Junhui fended off a fightback from Mark Selby to advance to the semi-finals for the first time.

Leading 10-6 from the second session, Ding saw Selby claw his way back to 10-10, but he dug in to win 13-10 and begins his last-four clash with Judd Trump later this afternoon.