BEIJING, April 6 (Xinhua) -- World No. 1 Mark Selby moved one step further to defend his title at World Snooker China Open while he and Neil Robertson, Barry Hawkins and Kyren Wilson head into the semifinals of the tournament held in Beijing on Friday.
Breaks of 63 and 69 helped Mark Williams win his last two frames in Beijing this year before Selby finished the match 6-2, including a 136-point and a 143-point break in the fourth and eighth frames.
"I have got better as the tournament has gone on and I'm really happy with the way I played today," said Selby, "I came here just trying to find some form but obviously now I want to go on and win it. But whoever I play in the semis tomorrow it will be tough."
Another quarterfinal was also a clash between two world champions though the match was one-sided, Neil Robertson swept Stuart Bingham 6-0 with six breaks of 50+ including a 143-point one in the second frame.
"You never expected to play that well, you always hope before the match that you will play that well and yeah that's the best play of all season I guess. I only missed two long balls and that was it. Every mistake that Stuart made I fully punished him. It's unfortunate for Stuart to ran into me on the really good day." Said Robertson, who was doing some Instagram live on his cellphone during the interview.
"Fans see us played, and they don't get to see the press conference. So this is the good way of interacting, show them what actually happens, especially in China, sometimes they don't believe you when you say snooker is huge in China, so many fans, a lot of media, so this is the way of showing them just how great snooker is in China."
The other two quarterfinals both took 11 frames to finish. Jack Lisowski once led by 4-0 before Kyren Wilson tied the match 4-4, after respectively wining one frame Wilson again made strong comeback and finished his opponent in the decider like what he did to Ding Junhui on Thursday night. He will play against the defending champion on Saturday.
Barry Hawkins was also dragged to the decider by Tom Ford despite his 3-0 lead, but he still managed to defeat Ford 6-5 to meet Neil Robertson in the semifinal.
