Kyren Wilson is three frames away from reaching a second World Snooker Championship final after opening up a 14-10 lead over David Gilbert in a dominant third session at The Crucible.
Twelfth seed Wilson, beaten 18-8 by Ronnie O'Sullivan in the 2020 final, pulled away from Gilbert on Friday after the pair began the evening locked at 8-8, winning six of the eight frames including five in a row from 9-9 as his opponent missed chances.
Gilbert, also a semi-finalist in 2019, stopped the rot by making a century in the final frame of the night - his fourth ton of the match - but Wilson remains big favourite to win the race to 17 when it concludes from 2.30pm on Saturday in Sheffield.
Wilson, the only seed left in the tournament among three other qualifiers, nudged ahead at 9-8 with a break of 85, only for Gilbert to restore parity with a half-century break.
It was one-way traffic after that, though, with Wilson moving three frames clear thanks to breaks of 93, 51 and 88 before extending that advantage to five.
Gilbert looked set to counter Wilson's 51 break in frame 20 by making it 10-10, only to miss the final yellow on 43, while he was also in frame 22 before missing a brown and falling four frames behind.
Wilson won the next as well after sinking a terrific long red but Gilbert claimed the final frame in style, potting from distance himself before going on to hit his 10th century of the tournament.
In the other semi-final, 2015 winner Stuart Bingham and fellow qualifier Jak Jones, who knocked out O'Sullivan and Judd Trump respectively in the quarter-finals, are all square at 8-8 ahead of their resumption at 10am on Saturday.
The final runs across Sunday and Monday.
It's one of the biggest sporting events in a generation. collide for the undisputed world heavyweight title on Saturday May 18, live on SportNews Box Office. .
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