Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. Selby missed a black off its spot in the fourth frame but still went into the mid-session interval level at 2-2 as it was Allen’s turn to fluff his lines in a tactical exchange. Mark Allen finished the opening stanza of the other semi-final against Mark Selby on a roll, winning the final three frames to lead 5-3 overnight.Ī 123 clearance gave Selby the ideal start but uncharacteristic errors in the safety battles in the next two frames allowed his Northern Irish opponent to take control with breaks of 63 and 66. Brecel then rattled a pink towards the top pocket which, had it gone in, would have levelled the match at 4-4, but it rolled agonisingly over left-middle, allowing the younger man to go two in front again.

The final frame of the session unfolded with a sustained safety exchange, but it was Brecel who made the first move with a break of 33 before inexplicably missing the pink – although Si faltered at 43-34. A second snooker and three more misses yielded 12 more points to leave the 28-year-old 38-33 ahead, and he eventually drew back to within one frame of his opponent with a visit of 69. Having benefited from a mistake, Brecel handed it back almost immediately, following up a good long red with a careless blue, but the Chinese player was equally profligate, leaving himself unable to see a colour as he attempted to develop the pack before taking seven attempts to hit the nominated brown. Si’s first error of note arrived in the next when, 53 points into another seemingly decisive break, he jawed the black to allow his opponent to the table, and Brecel’s break of 72 stopped the rot. The world No 80 stuttered briefly, missing a regulation red as he applied right-hand side to the cue-ball in an effort to develop the pack after Brecel had erred once again, but eventually tied up an untidy fifth frame 103-3. Si eased himself 3-1 in front at the mid-session interval after an arm-wrestle in the fourth frame with both players twice missing difficult reds to the middle pockets before he prevailed 103-29 courtesy of a break of 97. And he repeated the feat to take a 2-1 lead when, after Brecel had missed the yellow at 33-0, he cleared the table once again. However, the youngster announced himself in style in the second frame, sinking a tough red to get in before compiling an imperious 125 break. He went on to make 50 before missing the blue off its spot although Si – the youngest semi-finalist at the tournament since O’Sullivan in 1996 – was unable to prevent him from going ahead. In a scrappy start, Brecel enjoyed the benefit of an outrageous fluke when he rattled the pink in the jaws and saw the ball run the length of the table down the cushion before dropping in.

The crucible about