Hendry seeks his best game

Stephen Hendry believes he has the game to counteract the 'genius' of Ronnie O'Sullivan when the pair meet in a mouth-watering 888.com World Championship semi-final in Sheffield.

Hendry eased to a 13-7 quarter-final win over Wales' Ryan Day while O'Sullivan saw off Chinese qualifier Liang Wenbo by the same score at the Crucible.

Seven-time champion Hendry admits he has not found top form yet in the tournament while O'Sullivan has shown flashes of brilliance, including a 147 in his second round win over Mark Williams.

But the 39-year-old Scot is in confident mood as he seeks his first ranking title since 2005 and first world crown since 1999.

'Ronnie is the best player in the world at the moment, right-handed, left-handed, one-legged, one-armed, whatever you want,' said Hendry. 'He's knocking in centuries all over the place.

'He's a genius. I know I've got the game capable of beating him, but I need to bring my best game out. He doesn't know what will happen if I start to fly, we could have a massive game on our hands.

'I just can't wait to get out there, I love playing Ronnie. There will probably be just two people supporting me but I played Jimmy (White) a few times so I'm used to it!

'It's fantastic to be in the semi-finals. I was not coming in here with any great form under my belt with just one semi-final this season, but I knew if I could get past the first round anything could happen.

'If you look back at the record I've had here - six wins in seven years from 1990-96 - it can give you nothing but confidence to know that you've been there and done it.

'We're into the one-table situation now and in the 90s my pipe and slippers were underneath it - it was the place where I played.'

O'Sullivan won the second session 7-1 against Liang to lead 11-5 and effectively secure his passage into the last four, although he was far from his best when securing the two frames he needed for victory this evening.

He said: 'I'm pleased to be through, I could have played better but overall it's okay. I wanted to finish the match as quickly as possible but I started to miss a few balls. I didn't want to be there all night.

'It's good to be in the semi-final against a fantastic player. He has probably not done as well as he would have liked over the last two or three years but when you have the ability to do anything to such a high standard you can still win tournaments.

'It's no surprise to me that Stephen is there as he is a great player.'

O'Sullivan insisted he had no hard feelings towards Ali Carter after the 28-year-old's historic 147 break ruined his plans to buy a Bentley convertible.

Just 24 hours after O'Sullivan's maximum, Carter made one against Peter Ebdon to split the £157,000 bonus. 'You can't begrudge anyone,' O'Sullivan said.

'It was a great achievement for him but the Bentley's on ice!'  Carter's 147 helped him into a 9-7 overnight lead against 2002 champion Ebdon and the Essex right-hander turned that into a 13-9 victory to seal his first Crucible semi-final.

'It's not the money, doing it here is extra special,' Carter said. 'It's what you dream of as a kid. I've played snooker since I was six years old and seen Jimmy White do it, seen Stephen Hendry do it.

'I thought to myself, "Bloody hell, if I got myself in that position I don't think I'd be able to do it" but I proved myself wrong and it's always nice to be able to do that.

But forget about the 147, it's nice to win the match and be in the semi-final. I had Barry Hawkins in the first round which was really tough and it was hard to see past Shaun Murphy when I looked at the draw.

'He was the man this year, but I played really well and slaughtered him. Peter is a great player and I knew it would be a different match to playing Shaun, it was a battle and I came through the battle in the end.'

Ebdon was magnanimous in defeat, the Dubai-based 37-year-old adding: 'The better man won on the day. There were three or four occasions when I should have cleared up to win frames but all credit to Ali, he put me under a lot of pressure and was a worthy winner.

'The 147 was a fantastic break and I was absolutely thrilled for him. He is a really nice guy and one of the players I go out to dinner with and share a bottle of red.

'He has the game to win it, he just needs to believe in himself.'