China’s Yan Bingtao insists he is refusing to get carried away despite reaching the semi-finals of the OPPO International Championship in Daqing. The 17-year-old proved too much for John Higgins as he beat his more experienced rival 6-2 on Thursday afternoon. He went into the match after already beating Ronnie O’Sullivan 6-1 earlier in the week and Ricky Walden and Jack Lisowksi have also fallen victim to his recent form. Yan reached his first semi-final in a ranking event after superb breaks of 52 and 99 allowed him to move into 3-0 lead.
He then stretched his lead to 4-1 before kicking on again to seal a semi-final spot against Mark Allen on Saturday. The pair will battle it out over 17 frames but the youngster is keeping his feet on the ground. “I’m happy with my performance and it’s a little break through for me,” he told World Snooker. “I coped with the pressure well. I got off to a very good start and after I built a 4-1 lead I knew the chances were there for me, as long as I could control myself. Luckily I held it together. “I’ll stay calm and not think about winning the title just yet. I wanted to get to my first semi-final, so the pressure came from there. It doesn’t really matter who I play next, the key is to bring my best to the match table.”
A victory this weekend would see him become the youngest ever winner of a ranking event at the age of 17 years and 262 days but Allen is the 4/5 favourite, with Yan at Evs. Allen comes into the final four after beating Judd Trump 6-5 in a superb game earlier in the day.
Snooker odds available at Dafabet.