Ronnie O'Sullivan emphasizes the “three things” behind his semi -finals

Ronnie O'Sullivan wondered if the problem was or his hint after he had failed with a session with a crushed semi-final defeat against China's Zhao Xintong from the World Snooker Championship.

The seven -time world champion O'Sullivan had the tip and the Ferrule on his hint overnight, whereby the match was gone evenly with 4: 4, but things went down quickly when they were resumed on Friday.

O'Sullivan suffered the humiliation to watch Zhao in a remarkable morning meeting all eight frames when the 28-year-old took a 12: 4 lead into the evening before he went over the line to become the second Chinese player who reached the crucible final after Junhui.

O'Sullivan came to this tournament and had no longer played on the tour since he retired in the middle of his championship league group in January and lost his keyword after four of his five games.

But he was not sure whether the keyword used in Sheffield was responsible for his exit or whether it was his game.

O'Sullivan said: “I don't even know if the keyword, the Ferrule or I was. There were three things.

“I just don't even know where the white ball is going. I'm at a loss to be honest. I don't even know what to say.

“Sometimes you have to try something else, you know? It didn't feel good beforehand, so I tried to return to the old brass ferrule.

“I don't make the hint as an excuse or the like, but if I hadn't caught my old hint, I might have given him a better game, but my appearances were really not good enough.”

The English hopes of winning an eighth world crown are now over another year, but he insisted that this was not even in his thoughts.

“It doesn't really bother me,” he said. “I never fell into the thing of” I want to win a eighth “, I just want to come here and enjoy the snooker.”

When asked how he felt in the hours after the white session, O'Sullivan added: “I was not so disturbed. I was not surprised.

“I played a lot in practice and it is difficult to get my head around. And I can't even fix it, that's the problem. I don't think I can fix it.

“I know, I said I would like to try to give it two years, but if you want to play like this, it's pretty pointless. It's not good.”

The Zhao, based in Sheffield, whose aggressive break building stacked the pressure on his opponent throughout the game, admitted that he had mixed thoughts about the defeat of his hero O'Sullivan.

He said, “He is my idol. To be honest, I didn't want to win this time because I wanted to see that he would win his eighth place here.

“But I won and I know that I had to play well because I didn't think I could win before the game.

“I know that he is a legend and everyone wanted him to win this tournament, and I could feel that.

“I know that it will be really difficult (win the title). Everyone says that no Chinese player has already won this before, but I will only try to enjoy today.”

In the other semi-finals, Williams fought back 8: 8 from a four-frame deficit against Judd Trump before resuming on Saturday morning.