体坛英语新闻：China's Yan ousts Higgins to reach semifinals at Snooker Welsh Open

LONDON, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- China's Yan Bingtao knocked out veteran John Higgins 5-2 in Cardiff on Friday to reach the semifinals at the Welsh Snooker Open.

Yan, who turns 20 on Sunday, dominated the quarterfinal with a 3-0 lead. Then the 44-year-old Higgins pulled two frames back before Yan sealed his victory by winning the seventh frame 75-51.

Before ousting the world number five Higgins, Yan took a narrow win over newly-crowned Masters champion Stuart Bingham in the third round then edged Anthony McGill 4-3 to reach the quarterfinals.

Yan is going to face Shaun Murphy who defeated reigning world champion Judd Trump 5-3.

Yan won his first ranking title in Riga Masters last July and reached the semifinals at the UK Championships in December. With a current world ranking of 20, Yan becomes the second-highest ranked Chinese snooker player.

Kyren Wilson, who beat China's top player and world number nine Ding Junhui to reach the quarterfinals, continued his winning break by swept Australian Neil Robertson 5-0 on Friday.

Wilson will play against Ronnie O'Sullivan in the semifinals. O'Sullivan reached the last four after defeating Mark Selby 5-1.

During the Welsh Open, WST (World Snooker Tour) along with the sport's governing body the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association will donate 1,000 pounds for every century made this week to organizations in China providing medical support to victims of the novel coronavirus.

After four days of competition, the players in Cardiff have produced 65 century breaks, which means the donation is already up to 65,000 pounds.