World Snooker Championship: Si Jiahui determined to maintain attack-minded approach against Luca Brecel at Crucible

The 20-year-old stunned the snooker world by reaching the one-table set-up in Sheffield with a 13-12 quarter-final win over Anthony McGill on Wednesday night.

Si - who lives and trains in Sheffield, at Victoria’s Academy - had to win three qualifying matches simply to reach the Crucible.

But he wowed crowds with his attacking, fearless approach on the green baize which has accounted for 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy - who has tipped Si as a future Crucible winner - Robert Milkins and McGill.

His feats have had snooker buffs racing for the record books, with Si becoming the first Crucible debutant to reach the semi-finals since 1995, the youngest player to make it to the last four in Sheffield since Ronnie O’Sullivan in 1996, and only the third player from his country to make it to the one table arena, after Ding Junhui and Marco Fu.

It means whatever happens in the best-of-33 frames semi-finals - which will be played over the next three days - Si will shoot up at least 44 places from his current world ranking of 80, and overnight become a recognised name in the sport.

Not that Si will be toning down his aggressive tactics in the biggest match of his short career against Brecel.

“I’ll keep going for my shots because I’m still not as good as others at safety,” he said.

“I’ll go for potting when there are options, try to attack. I will keep trying my best, but I don’t want fans to expect too much.

“I am surprised to get this far because I didn’t think I was at the level of players who can make it to the semi-finals. I need to improve. So please don’t think of me as great player like Ding!”

Si, who comes from Zhu Ji in the Zhejiang province of central China, is through to the semi-finals of a ranking event for the first time.

But he needed to hold his nerve in a final-frame decider against McGill, showing he had the temperament to match his obvious cue skills.

“I genuinely felt pressure during the last frame and I had to keep my nerve under control,” said Si.

“All the spectators were watching. I was offered a lot of opportunities during the match by my opponent, and I thought with that many chances I wanted to win.

“I felt the desire, which was different from previous matches. I could have lost to Murphy and felt great because I was supposed to lose anyway.

“I’ve learned something from this experience and I will be playing under a better mindset from now on. I used to tremble because of nerves in deciding frames but I’m able to get through it more consistently, mentally stronger.”