Xiao Guodong followed up his comeback win over Ronnie O’Sullivan to edge out Mark Selby in a last-frame decider and book his place in the Champion of Champions semi-finals in Bolton.
The Chinese world number 16 had earlier fought back from 3-0 down to stun O’Sullivan in their best-of-seven match at the Toughsheet Community Stadium.
Selby had beaten Shaun Murphy 4-2 to secure his place in the group final stage – and the four-time world champion looked in solid form when back in action again as he opened up a 3-0 lead on the back of a 120 break.
Xiao, though, responded with a run of 118 and then started to claw back the deficit with a three-frame burst.
Selby looked to have put himself on the brink when going 5-4 up in the ninth, only for Xiao to force a decider.
After a re-rack, Selby had pulled back into contention with a run of snookers around the colours.
Xiao, though, fluked the yellow off a couple of cushions before drilling in the green and sweeping up to the pink for a 78-51 victory, which sets up a semi-final against Mark Allen, the defending champion and top seed.
Earlier, seven-time world champion O’Sullivan had seemed in cruise control after breaks of 65, 95 and 125 as Xiao failed to pot a single ball across the first three frames.
Xiao, though, started his recovery with a 130 break before levelling the contest with runs of 88 and 85 to force a deciding frame.
He nearly gave O’Sullivan an opening when he missed a straight red into the middle pocket.
But ‘the Rocket’ could not finish the job and was unable to get the snooker he required when he left the green in the jaws of the corner pocket and conceded.
Last week, O’Sullivan had been knocked out of the International Championship by Pang Junxu at the last 32 stage.
Against Murphy, Selby had built on a slow start, which saw him take nearly an hour to wrap up the second frame.
Selby, though, soon picked up the pace, as breaks of 132, 76 and then 72 saw him through.
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