O’Sullivan had the tip and ferrule on his cue changed overnight, having labelled it as “awful” ahead of the last-four clash with Zhao at the Crucible.
The seven-time champion had still emerged from the first session level at 4-4, but incredibly lost all eight frames on Friday morning – – only the fourth whitewash of O’Sullivan’s long Crucible career – as Chinese star Zhao ruthlessly punished every missed pot and poor safety to move 12-4 ahead.
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The 28-year-old left-hander returned for the third session on Friday evening and notched the five frames needed with a session to spare to book his place in the final against either Judd Trump or Mark Williams.
Zhao becomes the second Chinese player to reach the World Championship final after Ding Junhui in 2016.
There was a lovely moment at the end as the two men shook hands and Zhao applauded his hero O’Sullivan.
O’Sullivan: I’ve been awful for quite a while
O’Sullivan told the BBC: “Zhao deserves his victory. He’s played brilliant all tournament, so all credit to him. He played better than me.
“I’d just like to play alright, but I felt that I never gave him a game so that’s a bit disappointing. I’ve been awful for quite a while. Those performances have been coming out quite regularly recently.”
With the crowd right behind him, O’Sullivan needed a fast start in the evening to offer some hope of a comeback.
He had an early boost as Zhao – for just about the first time in the contest – missed a straightforward pot.
O’Sullivan capitalised and Zhao showed more fragility in the next frame by missing black off its spot for the deficit to be cut to six.
The match looked like turning but O’Sullivan, stretching for a red into the corner, missed and showed his clear disgust before Zhao cleaned up.
Zhao started to flow again and levelled the session with a magnificent 128 break, his third century of the match and the 100th of this year’s World Championship.
O’Sullivan responded with 57 in the next frame, his first 50 break of the evening.
But Zhao hit back with a frame-winning 85 and moved to within one of victory as O’Sullivan lapsed again.
O’Sullivan stopped at 32 in the 24th frame, the story of the match in so many ways as he did not have control of the cue ball.
The 28-year-old Zhao cleared the table with an 88 break to ram home his superiority before taking the applause of the Sheffield crowd.
In the other semi-final, Mark Williams fought back from a four-frame deficit against Judd Trump to level at 8-8.
