Ronnie O’Sullivan v Zhao Xintong LIVE: Tight battle continues in World Snooker Championship semi-final

Ronnie O’Sullivan continues his bid for a history-writing eighth snooker world title at the Crucible Theatre today as he resumes his semi-final with Chinese star Zhao Xintong. The pair matched each other in Thursday’s opening session to close at 4-4, and clash this morning and again this evening before they conclude the contest on Saturday.

The opening eight frames of this best-of-33 semi-final were error-strewn and both players lacked rhythm, with Zhao’s final score of 86 proving to be the best break of the match so far and a telling one which ensured they ended the day level.

In the other semi-final, the world No 1 Judd Trump led Mark Williams 5-3 overnight after coming out on top of a scrappy evening session in which neither player found much fluency, that is until Trump’s closing century break.

Follow the score between Ronnie O’Sullivan and Zhao Xintong and all the key action from the World Snooker Championship below.