Class of 92 – John Higgins, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Williams attain final 4

John Higgins survived a final-frame decider in opposition to Jack Lisowski to ebook his place within the World Championship semi-finals and seal an historic achievement for the fabled ‘Class of 92′.

After earlier wins for Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Williams, Higgins’ 13-12 success marks the primary time the trio – who all turned skilled 30 years in the past – have reached the final 4 on the Crucible since 1999.

Higgins will face O’Sullivan, who swiftly dispatched Stephen Maguire upon the resumption of their quarter-final, whereas Williams battled previous Yan Bingtao to arrange a last-four conflict with 2019 champion Judd Trump.

“We’ve received three of us who all got here by in 1992 and we’re into the semi-finals 30 years later,” mentioned Williams, who at 47 is the oldest semi-finalist since Ray Reardon in 1985.

“What different sport can do one thing like that? It doesn’t actually occur.”

Higgins stood on the point of defeat when Lisowski, who shocked favorite Neil Robertson within the earlier spherical, retrieved a 11-9 deficit to take the lead for the primary time for the reason that first body of the match.

However the 46-year-old drew on his a long time of expertise to reply with a century to power the decider, then seized on an early missed pink by Lisowski to compile a match-winning break of 72.

“I actually don’t know the place these two frames got here from on the finish,” admitted Higgins.

“I used to be struggling all day and I had not been taking my possibilities. You’ve simply received to discover a strategy to recover from the successful line.”

Earlier, O’Sullivan insisted “I’m no celebrity” after cruising into the final 4 for a file thirteenth time by wrapping up a snug 13-5 win over Maguire.

The 46-year-old reeled off breaks of 71 and 126 within the first two frames of the morning session to surpass the file he had shared with Stephen Hendry for reaching the final 4.

However, regardless of closing on emulating Hendry’s file of seven world titles, O’Sullivan is adamant that the Scot’s dominance of the game within the Nineties nonetheless makes him the best.

“Stephen is an all-time legend for me, the best participant,” O’Sullivan instructed the BBC.

“He was the Tiger Woods of snooker. Me, John (Higgins) and Mark (Williams) have all performed nicely, however when he was flying he was a celebrity.

“When there’s three of us, we’re not superstars. However when there’s one man dominating the game like he did, like Tiger Woods, it’s a special stage.”

It was one other commanding win from O’Sullivan, who began the event by dropping the primary three frames of his first-round match to David Gilbert earlier than storming again to beat the previous semi-finalist and blow away Mark Allen in spherical two.

Williams turned the second member of the ‘Class of 92’ to progress as he summoned two spectacular breaks to finish the dogged problem of his Chinese language opponent with a 13-11 win.

Yan took the primary two frames of the deciding session to ascertain a 10-8 lead however Williams hauled himself stage earlier than summoning frame-winning breaks of 66 and 78 respectively.

Williams added: “I can’t imagine I’m nonetheless competing with the large boys and attending to semi-finals and successful a few tournaments – it’s unbelievable.”

Williams will play Trump within the semi-finals after the 2019 champion recovered from a dismal opening session of the day to reel off eight frames in succession and sink Stuart Bingham 13-8.

Bingham had turned a 5-3 deficit into an 8-5 lead, however his missed black within the subsequent proved the set off for a spectacular comeback by Trump, who took the final three frames of the afternoon session to arrange his grandstand end.

“I couldn’t pot a ball and I simply tried to dig in and never get too down about it,” mentioned Trump.

“I managed to get out of the session at 8-8 which I used to be unbelievably completely happy about, and I felt much more assured going into the night session.”