John Higgins says he is “buzzing” after reaching the Semi-Finals of the World Championship for the first time since 2011 and believes he has what it takes to capture a fifth title at the Crucible.

The four-time World Champion secured his eighth appearance in the Last Four of snooker’s blue-riband event, after completing a comfortable 13-6 victory over Kyren Wilson in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

Higgins, who narrowly missed out in 2016 after losing 13-11 to Alan McManus in the Last Eight, is delighted to be back in the business end of the tournament, admitting he feared his time had passed following a loss of form after his most recent triumph.

“In the couple of years after winning in 2011, I was losing, my form wasn’t great and I didn’t think I was going to get back to the one-table set-up,” he said. “It’s the best place in the world to get out there and play.

“I can’t wait to come in tomorrow morning for practise and then walking out into the arena – I’m buzzing to be doing it again.”

The Scotsman will play either Barry Hawkins or Stephen Maguire in the semi-finals, a round in which he has won on five of his seven previous appearances.

Whereas, Mark Selby produced a trio of stunning century breaks in completing a 13-3 rout of Marco Fu for a place in the Semi-Finals of the 2017 World Championship on Wednesday.

The defending World Champion recorded a new tournament high break of 143 as he swept aside the Hong Kong star with a session to spare at The Crucible.

Selby had established a commanding 6-2 overnight advantage and duly picked up from where he left off when the two players re-emerged for the second session.

Crucible specialist Barry Hawkins reached his fourth Sheffield semi-final since 2013 by beating Stephen Maguire 13-9 at the Betfred World Championship.

Hawkins’ rock-solid all round game and composure under pressure make him perfectly suited to snooker’s biggest tournament and having lost to Ronnie O’Sullivan in the 2013 final he has since enjoyed three further runs to the semis.

This time he will meet John Higgins over 33 frames for the right to take on Mark Selby or Ding Junhui in the final.

London’s 37-year-old Hawkins has already had the best season of his career, highlighted by victory at the World Grand Prix in February, and the world number seven is now just two wins away from the sport’s most prestigious title.

Early in his match against Maguire he was hauled back from 5-1 up to 6-6, but the Hawk rose again and established a 9-7 lead going into the final session. Scotland’s Maguire started strongly tonight with a break of 135 and he took the next as well to level at 9-9.

Back came Hawkins with a 126 to regain the lead and he took a scrappy 20th frame to make it 11-9 at the interval. The next frame could have gone either way and Hawkins was lucky to fluke the final yellow when playing safe leading by 25 points, which proved enough to go three up with four to play. And he soon settled the result with a 77 in frame 22.

Elsewhere,. Ding Junhui recorded his first victory over Ronnie O'Sullivan by 13-10 , to advance to  the Semi-Finals of the 2017 World Championship at The Crucible on Wednesday.

The Chinese sensation produced a prolific scoring display to end O'Sullivan's latest quest for a sixth world title and make it back-to-back Semi-Final appearances in Sheffield.

Ding, last year's runner-up, held a 10-6 overnight lead going in to the final session, and although 'The Rocket' threatened a comeback, the 30-year-old held his nerve to complete a famous victory with a century break.

Ding will now face defending champion Mark Selby in the Last Four - a show-down which marks a mouth-watering repeat of last year's world final.