Higgins lines up semifinal
with Stevens

Nick Johnson

Former champion John Higgins beat Ken Doherty 13-6 to line up a semifinal clash with last year's runner-up Matthew Stevens in the snooker World championship on Wednesday.

Ronnie O'Sullivan, who beat Peter Ebdon 13-6, will contest the other semifinal with Joe Swail, who secured the last semifinal place with a 13-11 win over fellow Northern Irishman Patrick Wallace.

The turning-point in the Higgins-Doherty quarter-final came in the 16th frame when Doherty missed a red when leading 52-7 and Higgins cleared up to end the session with a 10-6 lead.

Higgins, who beat Doherty in the final three years ago, won the first three frames of the evening to seal victory.

"I'll need to keep on producing that sort of form if I'm going to go through to the final," Higgins acknowledged. "It's going to be very, very tough. There are some great players left in the semifinal line-up."

Higgins has a burning desire to add to his solitary title success at The Crucible.

"I think if you do win it two or three times you can be classed as a true great in the game," he said. "To get my name on it a second time would probably mean more than the first one."

Doherty backed Higgins to mount a strong challenge for snooker's top prize, commenting: "He's playing just as well as anybody else I've seen. His pedigree is there and he's won here before so he has the experience."

SWAIL COMEBACK

Swail produced one of his trade-mark comebacks to beat close friend Wallace 13-11.

Wallace led 6-2 at the end of the opening session but Swail fought back doggedly, winning seven out of the eight frames in the second session to go 9-7 ahead.

In a closely-contested concluding session, Swail finally came out on top to reach the semifinals for the second year running.

Swail admitted it was "very strange" facing his friend in such a big match.

"You don't want to play your best mate," he said. "It's probably the toughest match I've had to get through in my professional career. You know that one of you is going to be very disappointed and there was a lot of emotion involved."

Swail now faces O'Sullivan for a place in the final.

"I've never got to a final and I hope to God this is going to be the first one," Swail said.

"I know I'm going to have to play to a very high standard consistently because Ronnie is the type of player who will finish you off in no time."

HENDRY TRIBUTE

Stephen Hendry, seven times world champion, hailed Stevens's performance as "outstanding" after losing 13-5 to the young Welshman.

Hendry, who beat Paul Hunter 13-5 in the second round, paid a glowing tribute to Stevens after finding himself beaten by the same score.

"There are no excuses. I was just outplayed by a better player," he said.

"He scores very heavily and his safety was superb. There wasn't one part of his play that was lacking."

Hendry thinks that Stevens could go on to win the title. "Matthew was outstanding and it is going to take someone playing really outstanding snooker to beat him," added the 32-year-old Scot.

Stevens, 23, believes the fact that many pundits dismissed his chances of winning the title has worked in his favour.

"I haven't really been mentioned. They were all saying 'Ken, Ronnie, Stephen'," he said. "Maybe that took a bit of pressure off because no one was expecting much of me."

World number four O'Sullivan booked his place in the last four with his clearcut 13-6 win over Ebdon.

Taking a 12-4 lead into the final session, O'Sullivan claimed two of the opening three frames to secure his fourth semifinal appearance at The Crucible.

Ebdon said: "I've got the utmost respect for Ronnie and the snooker he produced was sensational.

"He's just so creative and a joy to watch. I just had a few chances and Ronnie was awesome."