Ronnie O’Sullivan knocked out of the World Snooker Championship by Zhao Xintong in Sheffield; ‘The Rocket’ was whitewashed in the second session and that proved too much of a mountain to climb; O’Sullivan: “I’ve been awful for quite a while”

Ronnie O’Sullivan was knocked out of the World Snooker Championship by Zhao Xintong

Ronnie O’Sullivan suffered a knockout blow to his hopes of a record eighth World Snooker Championship title after losing his semi-final 17-7 to an inspired Zhao Xintong.

O’Sullivan had the tip and ferrule on his cue changed overnight, having labelled it as “awful” ahead of the last-four clash with Zhao at the Crucible.

The seven-time champion had still emerged from the first session level at 4-4, but incredibly lost all eight frames on Friday morning – – only the fourth whitewash of O’Sullivan’s long Crucible career – as Chinese star Zhao ruthlessly punished every missed pot and poor safety to move 12-4 ahead.

The 28-year-old left-hander returned for the third session on Friday evening and notched the five frames needed with a session to spare to book his place in the final against either Judd Trump or Mark Williams.

Zhao becomes the second Chinese player to reach the World Championship final after Ding Junhui in 2016.

There was a lovely moment at the end as the two men shook hands and Zhao applauded his hero O’Sullivan.

O’Sullivan: I’ve been awful for quite a while

O’Sullivan’s hopes of an eighth World Snooker Championship crown were destroyed as Zhao thrashed him with a session to spare in Sheffield

O’Sullivan told the BBC: “Zhao deserves his victory. He’s played brilliant all tournament, so all credit to him. He played better than me.

“I’d just like to play alright, but I felt that I never gave him a game so that’s a bit disappointing. I’ve been awful for quite a while. Those performances have been coming out quite regularly recently.”

With the crowd right behind him, O’Sullivan needed a fast start in the evening to offer some hope of a comeback.

He had an early boost as Zhao – for just about the first time in the contest – missed a straightforward pot.

O’Sullivan capitalised and Zhao showed more fragility in the next frame by missing black off its spot for the deficit to be cut to six.

The match looked like turning but O’Sullivan, stretching for a red into the corner, missed and showed his clear disgust before Zhao cleaned up.

Zhao started to flow again and levelled the session with a magnificent 128 break, his third century of the match and the 100th of this year’s World Championship.

O’Sullivan responded with 57 in the next frame, his first 50 break of the evening.

But Zhao hit back with a frame-winning 85 and moved to within one of victory as O’Sullivan lapsed again.

O’Sullivan stopped at 32 in the 24th frame, the story of the match in so many ways as he did not have control of the cue ball.

The 28-year-old Zhao cleared the table with an 88 break to ram home his superiority before taking the applause of the Sheffield crowd.

Coming into this tournament, O’Sullivan had not played on the tour since he withdrew midway through his Championship League group in January – snapping his cue after losing four of his five matches.

‘The Rocket’ was unsure whether the cue he used in Sheffield was to blame for his exit or if it was his game.

O’Sullivan said: “I don’t even know if it was the cue, the ferrule or me. There were three things.

“I just don’t even know where the white ball’s going. I’m at a loss, to be honest with you. I don’t even know what to say.

“Sometimes you’ve got to try something different, you know? It didn’t feel great before so I tried to go back to the old brass ferrule.

“I’m not making the cue as an excuse or anything like that but if I hadn’t snapped my old cue maybe I’d have been able to give him a better game but really my performances have not been good enough.”

Ronnie: Defeat doesn’t really bother me

The Essex cueman says an eighth world title was not even in his thoughts

His hopes of winning an eighth world crown are now over for another year but he insisted that was not even in his thoughts.

“It doesn’t really bother me,” he said. “I’ve never kind of fallen into that thing of ‘I want to win an eighth’, I just want to come here and enjoy the snooker.”

When asked how he felt during the hours after being whitewashed in the morning session, O’Sullivan added: “I wasn’t that bothered. I wasn’t surprised.

“I’ve been playing like that quite a lot in practice and it’s just hard to get my head around. And I can’t even fix it, that’s the problem. I don’t even think I can fix it.

“I know I said I’d like to try and give it two years but if you’re going to play like that it’s pretty pointless. It’s not good.”

Sheffield-based Zhao, whose aggressive break-building piled the pressure on his opponent throughout the match, admitted having mixed thoughts over beating his hero O’Sullivan.

He said: “He’s my idol. To be honest I didn’t want to win this time because I wanted to see him win his eighth here.

“But I won and I know I needed to play well because before the match I didn’t think I could win.

“I know he’s a legend and everyone wanted him to win this tournament and I could feel that.

“I know it’ll be really hard (to win the title). Everyone says no Chinese player has won this before but I’ll just try to enjoy today.”

In the other semi-final, Mark Williams fought back from a four-frame deficit against Judd Trump to level at 8-8.