Barry Hawkins came agonisingly close to beating Ronnie O’Sullivan in Saturday’s Tour Championship semi-final.

The Hawk looked odds-on to go through to Sunday’s final, 9-6 ahead and leading by 47 in the 16th frame, but said he was devastated afterwards as the Rocket produced a stunning comeback to win the final four frames, sealing a 10-9 victory.

O’Sullivan won the 16th frame with a 71 break and will now meet Australian’s Neil Robertson on Sunday with the pair playing for the £150,000 top prize.

Hawkins had stunned world no.1 Judd Trump on Thursday, winning the quarter-final match to set up his meeting with O’Sullivan.

He started the best-of 19 frame semi in impressive fashion with breaks of 115 and 138 to claim a three-frame lead before O’Sullivan ended the afternoon session level at 4-4.

Ditton’s Hawkins made a good start to the evening session and was closing in on a victory before O’Sullivan produced a brilliant comeback.

Fellow pro Shaun Murphy had sympathy for Hawkins, tweeting: “Can relate to what Barry’s going through here. Incredibly difficult to put Ronnie away in these situations when he starts running at you like this.”

O’Sullivan said afterwards that Hawkins had deserved to win and that he “got out of jail.”