A rattled Ronnie O'Sullivan relinquished his Embassy World Championship crown in Sheffield tonight as he lost a battle of wits with Peter Ebdon.
'The Rocket' was brought down to earth as Ebdon slowed the pace of the match to a crawl, the 2002 champion's tactics working superbly to grind out a 13-11 victory in which he won 11 of the last 14 frames.
Ebdon got inside O'Sullivan's fragile mind to the point where the title-holder was visibly frustrated from the opening frame of tonight's concluding session.
The world number eight was taking anything up to three minutes for each shot and dithered five minutes over a break of 12 - almost as long as O'Sullivan needed to compile his fastest competitive 147.
During frame 17, the first one tonight, O'Sullivan tried to counter Ebdon's delaying tactics by playing on despite needing 10 snookers.
He asked a member of the audience for the time, then in frame 20 laughed when Ebdon missed a pot and sat slumped in his chair with his hand covering his face before scratching his forehead in frustration and looking half asleep when his
opponent was playing.
But it was Ebdon who benefited from the histrionics to book a semi-final date with Shaun Murphy, with O'Sullivan incapable of stringing together a sizeable break, missing pots he would normally have sunk with his eyes closed.
Murphy needed just over 23 minutes to wrap up his drubbing of Steve Davis, completing a 13-4 triumph in the opening frame of the final session.
Davis paid tribute to the world number 48, whom he first encountered when pestered for an autograph by a nine-year-old Murphy.
"Shaun potted them off the lampshades and I made too many basic errors to stay with him," said the 47-year-old who will retain his place in the world's top 16 next season.
"His long potting was unbelievable in the first session and I don't think anyone is hitting the ball straighter over distance."
Ian McCulloch reached the semi-finals for the first time with a 13-8 win against Alan McManus and will now play Matthew Stevens.
Apart from a five-frame spell at the end of the first session when the Scot hit back from 0-3 down to 5-3 up it was all McCulloch, who will now bid to repeat his achievement in reaching this season's Grand Prix final.
"I can't wait for the semi-final and I'll treat it like any other match," said the world number 17 who had ousted Mark Williams in the previous round.
Mathew Stevens maintained his consistent record of reaching the semi-finals, booking a place in the last four with a 13-11 victory over Stephen Hendry.
It means a fifth semi-final appearance in six years for the Welshman, who came through a terrific tussle by taking the last four frames against a clearly out-of-sorts opponent.
Hendry was disgusted with his performance other than a spell at the start of the second session when he compiled his only two centuries.
"I played poor in my first match here, poor in my second match and apart from four frames last night I played poor in this match," said the world number three.
"You don't deserve to get anywhere when you play like that. I was missing easy balls and if you do that you don't deserve to win a World Championship.
"It's sheer lack of concentration and I don't know what I can do to fix that."
