Barry Hawkins proved much too strong for Ding Junhui as he completed a 13-5 win in their World Championship quarter-final at the Crucible. The Chinese had been made tournament favourite after Mark Selby and Ronnie O’Sullivan – ranked one and two in the world – had crashed out.
Ding, however, never appeared comfortable in the match with Hawkins and there was an inevitability about things as the Englishman picked up the two frames he needed on Wednesday to advance. A scrappy opening frame went the way of Hawkins, 39, to leave him on the verge of a convincing win and the left-hander then won his fifth frame in a row with a break of 124 to see off an out-of-sorts world number three. Hawkins, who faces either Mark Williams or Ali Carter in the semi-finals, was runner-up at the Crucible to O’Sullivan in 2013.
He’s twice been a semi-finalist since and, in the last four years, has won more Crucible matches than any other player. He was delighted with the win over Ding and admitted that his opponent was, in the end, suffering. “I punished him every time he made a mistake and when someone is doing that against you, it is easy to miss a few,” said Hawkins. “I managed to keep him under pressure. And there is a lot of pressure on his shoulders too. “Winning 6-2 last night was huge and I am happy to get over the line. I felt like he gave up at the end.” Hawkins is now 3/1 to become world champion this season.
Snooker odds available at Dafabet.