Snooker results: Kyren Wilson dominates Ding Junhui to reach Tour Championship final

For reasons unrelated to snooker, it's been a quiet latter part of the campaign for the habitual Crucible contender but he went through the gears in no uncertain terms here, thumping a rival who played well and had arrived buoyed by a recent Six Reds win.

Each and every one of the 15 frames they played produced a break of fifty-plus, with Wilson's six centuries deservedly seeing him move into Sunday's denouement.

Wilson's performances on the table this week have been even more commendable given the challenges he and his family have faced away from the sport, with five-year-old son, Bailey, suffering ongoing illness and needing to spend five days in hospital only last month.

A delighted Wilson told ITV Sport: "It's a dream come true because I try and put the hours in, and it's obviously been well-documented that's not been the case for this particular event because of things that have gone on off the table.

"It's just freed the shackles really and there's nothing better – when you're out there, you feel like you can't miss and everything is just going for you. I wish we could play the final now.

"I've been doing that sort of standard in practice and it's been taking big performances to beat me in tournaments. A lot of the guys have gone on to win events – Gary Wilson won the Scottish Open and Shaun [Murphy] won in Wolverhampton [Players Championship]."

In what must rate as one of the highest-quality matches of the season, Wilson added a further four sizeable contributions and the match ended how it had begun, with him keeping Ding tied to his chair.

Ding could do nothing early on as he failed to register a single point across the opening four frames, Wilson's run including a match-high 130 in frame two.

That set the tone and on this form he'll be eyeing not just the most significant victory of his career on Sunday, but what might lie ahead in Sheffield.