O'Sullivan to face Hendry

O'Sullivan was beaten by Hendry in the final of the British Open

Ronnie O'Sullivan and Stephen Hendry will meet in the semi-finals of the Travis Perkins UK Championship after recording comfortable wins on Thursday.

O'Sullivan crushed Australian Quinten Hann 9-3 while Hendry beat England's Barry Pinches by the same scoreline.

Hendry will have the psychological edge against O'Sullivan, having beaten the 'Rocket' in the final of the British Open.

Jimmy White and Matthew Stevens will contest the other semi-final at York's Barbican Centre.

O'Sullivan took his tally to 11 centuries for the championship with three against Hann.

I'll have to play better than that to beat Stephen Ronnie O'Sullivan

The Essex star, who led 6-2 at the break, claimed the first frame of the evening session with a 100 break.

O'Sullivan followed up with a break of 50 before Hann hit back with a spirited 69.

But O'Sullivan snatched a scrappy 12th frame to clinch the match and leave himself an intriguing showdown with Hendry, who beat him 9-6 in Brighton last week.

"I'll have to play better than that to beat Stephen," said O'Sullivan.

Hann said he felt "intimidated"

"He'll be tough to beat, but it's nice to be in the semi-finals of a world-ranking semi-final. It would be nice to get one over on him because he beat me the other week."

Hann admitted he always feared defeat.

"Ronnie seems to be hitting the ball perfectly at the moment," said the Australian.

"Once he got going he was hard to stop, he was playing well amongst the balls.

"He steam-rolled me, like he does. He intimidates me when I play him. I just can't relax, but I didn't test him."

Hendry took the first frame of his evening session against Pinches with a cultured 103 break.

He took the next with a 74 break before qualifier Pinches responded with breaks of 31 and 55 to still leave himself an outside chance of causing another upset.

But Hendry knocked in breaks of 39 and 42 in the final frame to send Pinches out.