Ronnie O'Sullivan will play either Mark Selby or Ding Junhui in the World Grand Prix final after coming from behind to defeat Stephen Maguire in Preston.
The Rocket, who is chasing his fourth ranking title of the season and 32nd of his career, was in sublime form 24 hours earlier as he fired in four century breaks in a 5-0 victory over Xiao Guodong but on this occasion he had to show fighting spirit to deny his Scottish opponent.
Maguire opened the match with a fine break of 103 before opening up leads of 3-1 and 4-2 only for O'Sullivan to suddenly find another gear which helped him take the next four frames on the spin.
The first three of those were thanks to successive breaks of 72, 83 and 128 before the five-time world champion finished the job comfortably enough in the 10th frame to book a spot in Sunday's two session final at the Guild Hall.
When asked what he was thinking at 3-1 down, O'Sullivan told ITV4: "I'm going to go for a run tomorrow, the weather's going to be a nice blue sky. Then boxing training in the afternoon, then a nice lunch, then maybe the gym in the evening. Then watch a film. On Sunday I'll do a bit of practice.
"I felt like I'd been sat down a lot of the time. I looked at my watch and we'd only played four frames in about an hour and a half and I'm usually done and dusted by then! It was a drag but Stephen made it tough."
When asked who he'd rather play in the final, he said: "I'd rather play Ding. If it's Mark it'll kill me! They better put late trains on for the public to get home!"
Earlier in the day, Selby reached the semi-finals with a 5-2 win over Michael White thanks to breaks of 69, 59 and 52 although he wasn't at his best.
The world number one said: "I was practising last night then at the interval I saw Ronnie had a 99% pot success rate. He came in to practise on the other table and I thought he must be looking for that extra 1%! Like Roger Federer he seems to be getting better with age, which is worrying for the rest of us. If I end up meeting him in the final I would prefer that because I’d know if I don’t play well I’d have no chance.
"I got frustrated today because I’m playing well on the practice table but it’s not happening out there in matches. Any pot over six foot, I am not timing and cueing across it. I’m glad I’m still in the tournament but I take pride in my performance so I’m not happy with that.
"In some frames I am getting three or four chances and only getting 20 points in front. I was trying to force myself to play well today rather than just focusing on trying to win."
Ding got the better of a tough battle against Anthony McGill, winning 5-3.
The Chinese star made a break of 96 to lead 3-2 and although the Scotsman restored parity, Ding seized control again with a superb 134 before completing the job in the next.
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