Neil Robertson beats Jack Lisowski in the semi-finals of the International Championship

Both players have found some of their best form in Daqing, China this week, Roberston knocking out reigning champion and world number one Mark Selby in the quarter-finals while Lisowski eased past Judd Trump in the last eight.

With that in mind, a close semi-final encounter appeared highly likely beforehand and the pair didn't disappoint as they traded blows for two sessions of absorbing snooker.

It wasn't all big breaks and potting, though, and they went to the first mid-session interval at 2-2 with Robertson's run of 60 in frame two the highest break of the match thus far.

Lisowski managed a break of 64 in the first of the action upon the resumption but it wasn't enough as Robertson held his nerve to edge a tight frame.

Roles were reversed in the following frame, Robertson in first with 66 before Lisowski produced a magnificent clearance of 71 to level the scores once again.

Lisowski carried on in the same vein in the next frame when producing a sublime break of 102 but Roberston fought back to take the final frame of the first session to leave the match perfectly poised at 4-4.

The first two frames of the evening session were again shared but Robertson then found another gear when it was needed most, the Australian winning three frames on the bounce thanks to breaks of 54 and 119.

At 8-5 down, Lisowski was all but done but he rallied with breaks of 133 and 60 to reduce his arrears to 8-7 and keep his hopes alive before Robertson had the final say, a well-taken run of 67 enough to get him over the line in frame 16 and book his place in Sunday's final.

Roberston will face Mark Allen who overcame Matthew Stevens on Friday.

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