Snooker results: Ronnie O'Sullivan beats John Higgins 6-5 in Shanghai Masters quarter-finals

O'Sullivan looked out of sorts for much of the early part of the match and was a shade fortunate to level at 2-2 after his opponent squandered a couple of really good chances to build a three-frame advantage.

Nevertheless, Higgins then put together breaks of 115, 71 and 74 to reel off three frames on the spin and move himself within a single frame of victory.

O'Sullivan was still to register a break of 50 at this stage and was all but waving the white flag when Higgins added a run of 52 in frame eight, only for the defending champion to keep his apparently faint hopes alive by pinching the frame on the pink thanks to a clearance of 23.

Sniffing the scent of a comeback, O'Sullivan won the next frame to reduce his arrears to 5-4 before producing a typically stunning grand finale, back-to-back centuries of 100 and 130 leaving Higgins stunned and sending The Rocket into the semi-finals.

O’Sullivan told WST: "He should have put me away really. He had enough chances. He was 5-2 up and in control of the game, uncharacteristically for John he didn’t finish it off. He looked a little bit disappointed with himself.

"I didn’t expect to do anything because I was really awful. I’ve been awful for about 18 months now and that is a long time to not find any form.

"When you’ve got a nice crowd and a nice venue it forces you to dig in, you don’t really want to lose. At this tournament you give it 100% all of the way. I have a good record here and it would be nice to get to the final."

Selby sets up O'Sullivan semi-final

Mark Selby will renew hostilities with O'Sullivan in the last four on Friday, having trounced Judd Trump 6-1.

Selby was at his ruthless best throughout, brushing off the early setback of losing the first frame to boss proceedings thereafter.

Breaks of 75, 63 and 87 helped Selby turn the match in his favour as he moved 3-1 in front, and Trump had no answers when the 2011 champion added further runs of 80 and 83 to finish the job in style.

Selby said: "As it turned out, Judd didn’t perform anywhere near as well as he can. When people like Judd play like that you have to try and capitalise. It doesn’t come round very often. Normally he is very good and unplayable or he plays to a good level.

"China is an important part of our calendar and to not have it for three or four years has been tough. To come back with no restrictions is great and I speak on behalf of all of the players that we are happy to come back here."

Robertson sets up Brecel clash

The second semi-final, to be played on Saturday, will see Neil Robertson take on world champion Luca Brecel.

Robertson signed off with a century as he brushed aside Fan Zhengyi 6-1, while Brecel came from 2-0 down to beat Robert Milkins 6-3.