Joe O’Connor is delight to have ousted defending champion John Higgins from the Welsh Open.

O’Conner, 23 and ranked 103 in the world, pulled off a sensational 5-3 victory over the four-time world champion and will face 2015 Crucible hero Stuart Bingham in Saturday’s semi-finals.

It was the biggest win of his career and followed on from beating Kyren Wilson and Ding Junhui earlier in the tournament, with the Leicester man admitting it has been a whirlwind few days in Cardiff.

“I’m over the moon. This past week has been a bit of a dream,” he told the World Snooker website.

Next up is a clash with fellow Englishman Bingham, who took care of 21-year-old Chinese star Zhao Xintong in their quarter-final match-up and the 42-year-old from Basildon will be looking for his second title this season after taking the English Open in October last year.

He also reached the last four of the UK Championship but, those two events aside, has failed to make it past round two of any other ranking tournament.

However experience is key and Bingham is 1.20 with Dafabet to get the job done, with O’Connor on offer at 4.33 to advance to Sunday’s final.

Neil Robertson is the 1.91 favourite to win the Welsh Open, with Bingham (2.50), Iranian Hossein Vafaei (10.00) and O’Connor (12.00) following in the market.

All the big names have crashed out at the Motorpoint Arena and will have their eyes firmly on the World Championship, with Ronnie O’Sullivan favourite at 4.00.