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

He added: "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!"

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 on Wednesday 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."

Ali Carter's 147 helped him into a 9-7 overnight lead against 2002 champion Peter Ebdon and the Essex right-hander turned that into a 13-9 victory to seal his first Crucible semi-final.

And in a thrilling battle which went the full distance, Joe Perry ousted the much-fancied Stephen Maguire 13-12 in a tense evening session.

It is also the first time Perry has reached the semi-finals of the World Championships, in his 16 years as a professional, and he will face Carter at the Crucible.