Chinese teenager Ding Junhui breezed across his compatriot Marco Fu from Hong Kong on his 18th birthday for a semi- final berth at the China Open snooker on Friday.

World No.16 Marco was not in his best form as he focused much more on the defense and took only two frames, before Ding sealed his 5-2 victory by taking consecutive frames with double breaks of 71 and 39 to win the first Chinese snooker players' clash on such a world-wide event.

"I'm of confidence to expect the next victory over Ken Doherty, although he has sweeped away with lopsided wins at China Open into last four."

World championship runner-up Doherty from Ireland enjoyed his comfortable 5-1win against World No.4 Paul Hunter, who stole the opening frame.

Doherty responded, when asked to face either of the two Chinese quarter finalists, "Both of them are very tough, but I prefer to meet Ding. Marco Fu is hungry for victory to secure his 16th world ranking at the end of this season."

In the day's earlier actions, snooker legend Stephen Hendry from Scotland whitewashed wild card Welsh Ricky Walden 5-0 into the semi-finals, but world No. 2 Mark Williams was ousted 5-2 by Scotch Alan McManus.