Ebdon's mind games

O'Sullivan was frustrated by Ebdon's mental tenacity

By BBC Sport's Clive Everton in Preston

Losing - or winning - from a frame of "snookers needed" position can often be psychologically pivotal.

This was clearly the case in Peter Ebdon's 5-4 defeat of the world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in the quarter-finals of the LG Cup in Preston.

Once again, it was proved that there is very little margin of error at this level in a sprint best-of-nine.

Ebdon carried on in the third frame far beyond the point where many players would have conceded and having needed three snookers, stole a 2-1 lead.

This gave Ebdon renewed impetus and with a winning 79 break, he made it 3-1.

Ebdon is into the semi-finals

The mid-session interval gave O'Sullivan a chance to overcome his frustration.

He played brilliantly in winning the next three frames, making a break of 116 and restricting Ebdon to only one red in this period.

There was still time for another twist.

Ebdon never lost his self-belief, still less his tenacity and levelled at 4-4 with a late 47.

Ebdon's aura of mental toughness seemed to get under O'Sullivan's skin.

Snookered early in the last frame, O'Sullivan again gave way to frustration as he was reduced to lashing out in the hope of a fluke when Ebdon snookered him.

Ebdon made 34 and never relinquished his grip of the frame and he went through to play Northern Ireland's Joe Swail in Saturday's semi-final.

Swail raised his game and showed his experience in winning the last three frames to secure his 5-4 win over Barry Hawkins.

Hawkins, the world number 85 from Catford, has been the revelation of the week.

It is most unusual for such a low-ranked player to maintain his form through a succession of major challenges.

The top players may be used to it but the lesser lights tend to burn out much more quickly.

In beating James Wattana 5-1, Hawkins became only the fourth player to make a century break on his TV debut.

Swail came from behind to beat Barry Hawkins

He needed a snooker in the penultimate frame before he went on to beat world number 16 Fergal O'Brien 5-4.

And he made a break of 116 in the ninth frame decider minutes before midnight on Thursday to beat Marco Fu, the world number 17.

Plenty of young players have the game to look the part - Hawkins is one of a much lesser number who seem to have what it takes to mentally be the part.

Showing no reaction from his earlier exploits, he led Swail 4-2 and 43-0 in the decider, only for Swail to deny him his eighth win in a competition he had begun in the first qualifying round.

Stephen Lee's 5-2 win over John Higgins ended the UK champion's chance to extend his hat-trick of early season titles.

Higgins seemed a little jaded from the mental effort that his winning streak had entailed as Lee, from 0-2, generally controlled the exchanges.

Lee, who won his only world-ranking title here three years ago, can now reach the final at the expense of Stephen Hendry.

Hendry was a 5-2 winner over Mark Williams, a match in which neither were in prime form.

"You'll have to play better than that," Williams informed Hendry cheerfully as they shook hands.

He was right about that.