Ronnie O’Sullivan had an impressive comeback in the quarterfinals of the Shanghai Masters, smashing Kyren Wilson 6-5 having trailed by four frames at one stage.

The defending Champion looked set to suffer his first loss of the season and to give up his Shanghai title after the Kyren Wilson opened up a 5-1 lead and had a good number of opportunities to kill off the game.

Wilson will definitely not be happy with himself that he could not convert a golden opportunity to beat the five-time world champion for only the second time of his career.

The world number eight suffered a humiliating defeat to O’Sullivan in the final of the Champion of Champions last season, leading 9-8 in a race to 10 and falling short – this will have done nothing to close the wound.

Wilson looked in control early on, winning the first and then opening up a two-frame lead with an excellent break of 131 in the second.

The Rocket got his first frame on the board, but the Gladiator made a break of 67 in the fourth two hold a 3-1 lead at the mid-session interval.

Things were not going well for Ronnie at all as he appeared to be in control of the fifth frame but eventually tossed it away as Wilson won it on the black after a loose safety shot.

Wilson won the next to go one away from victory, but with his back against the wall, the Rocket seemed to light up, knocking in a break of 107 to keep the game alive at 5-2 behind.

Wilson definitely had a great chance to claim victory and book his place at the semi-finals, but the underdog could not press home his advantage, and Ronnie got back in to take the game to 5-5.

O’Sullivan now faces Neil Robertson in the semi-final on Saturday after he won Barry Hawkins 6-2 in an excellent performance.

Friday’s first semi-final will see Shaun Murphy squaring up against Mark Allen after Murphy downed Jack Lisowski 6-1 and Allen smashed Judd Trump by the same score.

Written by: Imisa Aruorihwo