Ding Junhui books semifinals berth at 2017 Snooker World Open

After defeating Liang Wenbo, Ricky Walden and Peter Ebdon on his way to the quarterfinals, Li Hang took an early 3-1 lead over the No 1 snooker player in China. After the mid-session interval, Ding regained his form with breaks of 110, 72 and 108. When Ding led with 73-36 in the eighth frame, Li Hang decided to end the match by standing up and shaking hands with Ding.

Ding will face the winner between Anthony McGill and Luca Brecel.

"He is different from what he was before, he had stunning performance here and at China Championship in Guangzhou," commented Ding on Li, "I missed a lot of chances before the interval, but things were getting better after that. I was lucky to beat him today."

In an earlier quarterfinal match with Mark Williams, Kyren Wilson had a phenomenal performance by defeating his opponent 5-1 with an unanswered run of 503 points.

Williams started the match comfortably with a 121-point-break in the opener, however, those were his last points in Yushan this year. Starting from the second frame, the match became Wilson's show time during which the 25-year-old had consecutive breaks of 102, 127, 71, 135 before he finished the match 68-0 in the sixth frame.

"It's got to be one of my best games ever," said the father of a new born son, "It's nice to finally produce what I am capable of. I play like that in practice a lot so it is nice to do it on a big stage against a very good player."

Wilson will face Mark Allen, who beat David Gibert 5-1 in another quarterfinal match.