Ronnie O’Sullivan is one match away from the World Snooker Championship final, but must first face Zhao Xintong in the semi-finals at the Crucible. The seven-time champion has had a relatively kind passage into the last four, seeing off both Ali Carter and then Pang Junxu with relative ease before beating no13 seed Si Jiahui 13-9 to reach the last four. O’Sullivan, though, has not been impressed by his performances thus far, branding them awful after reaching the semi-finals. He told BBC Sport: "I am just grinding it out. I have had some work done on my cue today and I am probably going to have to try and get a new ferrule and tip because it feels awful. "I'm playing awful and the cue feels awful, so it is the worst situation to be in as a snooker player. I don't think I can get any worse." Zhao, a former UK champion, is the first amateur to reach a championship semi-final and had to win four qualifying matches to reach the Crucible tournament. O’Sullivan remains a big favourite to keep his bid for a record-breaking eighth title alive at the Crucible. The winner of this match will face Judd Trump or Mark Williams in Sunday final. O’Sullivan and Zhao are first up at the Crucible this afternoon, with their semi-final starting at 1pm before Judd Trump and Mark Williams take centre stage in the evening session from 7pm. The semi-finals are best-of-33-frames contests, so are scheduled across three days, from May 1 to May 3, before the two-day final across May 4 and 5. TV channel: In the UK, the World Snooker Championship is being broadcast live and free-to-air across the BBC. Coverage of the morning session today begins on BBC Two at 10am. Live stream: O’Sullivan vs Zhao will be shown in full online via BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website.