Wilson fights back to beat Robertson and reach final

In a final-frame decider, world champion Kyren Wilson defeated 6-1 Neil Robertson to advance to the Players Championship final.

In Sunday’s showpiece in Telford, Wilson will square off against Judd Trump or John Higgins, who has four times won the Crucible.

A rejuvenated Australian hoped for a third final of the season when Robertson took a dramatic fourth frame on the black and then the fifth. In a high-quality opening to the contest, Robertson managed to create a century and an 83 break.

Wilson, however, came up with a break of 116 to bring the score to 4-4 in three frames.

Wilson responded with a break of 89 with a 134 overall clearance after going off on a respotted black in the ninth.

The 33-year-old, who advanced past Robertson in a classic, had a particularly impressive final performance. He did not concede a point in the final two frames and is now chasing a fourth ranking title of the campaign.

Wilson told ITV4: “It is a testament to my mental strength. “It was sickening to lose the frame on the respot.

You have to switch to be aggressive because Neil is so good and his cue action is second to none. At 4-1, I was able to dig in and do that.

After coming back from 4-1 and 5-2 down to defeat Xiao Guodong 6-5, Higgins set up a final-four meeting with Trump on Saturday (1900 GMT).

China’s Xiao won the match-up against the four-time world champion in the first quarter-final against a superb break of 111 in the opening frame.

He moved one frame short of victory thanks to further runs of 55, 60, and 104.

Higgins, who turns 50 in May and just won his first ranking contest at the World Open for the first time in four years, resurrected with a break of 70 in the eighth frame before capturing the final three, before climaxing the match with a half-century.

I feel incredibly relieved. I’ve had a dominant impact on matches like that because I’ve been on the wrong end. It’s brilliant to emerge on the right, Higgins said.

I thoroughly enjoyed the game. He played more basketball than I did, but it was fantastic. A large crowd gathered there.