Kettering's Kyren closing in on world final

Kettering's Kyren Wilson is just four frames away from his first Betfred World Championship final after he enjoyed a superb day at the Crucible yesterday (Thursday).

Wilson was 6-2 behind at the start of the day but stormed back to win 11 out of 16 frames to open up a 13-11 advantage over Anthony McGill in their semi-final encounter.

The best of 33-frame clash will be played to a finish from 2.30pm this afternoon with the winner to face either Mark Selby or Ronnie O’Sullivan in the final.

Three-time ranking event winner Wilson is playing in his second Crucible semi-final and, after a slow start, is rising to the occasion.

Glasgow’s McGill, competing in the semis for the first time, continues to battle hard and took the last frame of last night's session with his first century of the tournament to keep in touch.

With the scores level at 8-8 after the morning session, world number 39 McGill took the opening frame in the evening to lead 9-8 before Wilson won the next with a break of 99.

The next two frames, lasting a total of 57 minutes, were shared to leave the score at 10-10.

After the interval, Wilson made a 116 to take the lead for the first time in the match before a fragmented 22nd frame came down to a safety battle on the pink, and eighth seed Wilson converted an excellent pot to double his lead.

A 105 in the next, his seventh century of the tournament, made it 13-10 but McGill finished the session strongly by knocking in a long red and building a 136 total clearance.

Should 28-year-old Wilson reach his first final, it will be played in front of a live crowd tomorrow and on Sunday.

The government has announced that the programme of pilots for the return of live crowds for sport, which were paused at the end of July, can resume from this weekend.

That means the Crucible will welcome around 300 fans for the final two days of the tournament.