Shanghai Masters: Nottingham's Michael Holt into semi-final

Last Updated: 20/09/13 5:46pm

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Michael Holt: Into first ranking semi-final

Michael Holt: Into first ranking semi-final

Sky Bet

Nottingham's Michael Holt reached the first ranking event semi-final of his 17-year career as he put an end to Kyren Wilson's dazzling run at the Shanghai Masters.

The 35-year-old has recorded some big scalps in the game's biggest tournaments but never before this week had he reached the last four.

Holt began this week with a thumping 5-1 win over Judd Trump, backed it up by ousting Martin Gould, and then put paid to Kettering-based world No 100 Wilson's hopes of going any further.

He had breaks of 85, 64 and a closing 80 in a 5-1 victory over Wilson.

Wilson had knocked out Stuart Bingham and Marco Fu in the opening two rounds, settling comfortably into his maiden major tournament, however against Holt the 21-year-old was emphatically outscored by an overall 462-117.

The crushing win for Holt sets up a semi-final against Xiao Guodong, who delighted the Chinese audience by beating England's Mark Davis 5-4.

Xiao fell 3-1 behind as 6-Reds World Championship winner Davis began the match in sizzling form with 63, 71 and 87, but the 24-year-old Chinese player battled back against his 41-year-old opponent and rattled off breaks of 50, 67 and two runs of 61.

With Holt and Xiao set to battle it out on Saturday for a place in Sunday's final the evening session on Friday saw world No 2 Mark Selby surprisingly beaten 5-4 by Barry Hawkins in an English affair, and a second Chinese Ding Junhui easily defeating the world's top ranked player Neil Robertson of Australia 5-2.

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