Higgins edges in front

John Higgins took advantage of a jittery session from Mark Williams to steal ahead in their Betfred.com World Championship semi-final.

The Scot could count himself lucky on Friday to emerge only 9-7 behind after a second session in which he was largely outplayed by Welshman Williams but somehow split the eight frames.

That may have been a factor on Saturday as Higgins won their third session 6-2 to open a 13-11 lead, and now needs four more frames in the evening to book a fifth appearance in the Crucible final.

Three-time winner Higgins and two-time champion Williams shared the opening four frames of the morning.

Higgins twice closed the gap to a single frame, but Williams found enough to hit back on both occasions, firstly with a run of 70 and then when helped by a poor, if a touch unlucky, safety from his opponent.

Again the gap was down to one frame when Higgins had a 45 break to get back to 11-10, and he fired in 58 when levelling the scores.

The 35-year-old, who returned in November from a six-month ban imposed for betting rule infringements, moved ahead in the match for the first time when he edged a scrappy 23rd frame, in which his 22 was the highest break.

Williams had a clear chance to take that frame, but missed a long brown to a top pocket by a long way. That left him 36-34 behind, with Higgins able to clear to the pink with a run of 20.

Higgins was then left an opening red in the final frame of the session by Williams, who missed a pot to the middle from an acute angle. From a position where he might ordinarily have made a frame-winning contribution, this time Higgins ground to an early halt.

Williams stole in with 61 but failed to split the remaining three reds as he wished and had a lead of 41 but no pot available. He played an instantly regrettable shot, screwing off one red and into a middle pocket, while leaving Higgins a starter. He made a 49 clearance, securing the two-frame advantage.