Ronnie O'Sullivan demolished Stephen Hendry to reach his second Embassy World Championship final - and then revealed he is considering switching to playing left-handed for all of next season.

The Rocket admits swapping from playing right to left-handed helped him to start enjoying the game again during his second-round clash with Andy Hicks.

O'Sullivan believes he is already "a top 16 player" as a left-hander and wants to practice in the summer to see if he can become good enough to operate permanently in that mode and win tournaments.

It will be a frightening prospect for opponents as already as a right-hander O'Sullivan demonstrated against Hendry that he is a daunting prospect.

His 17-4 success with a session to spare is the highest winning margin in a Crucible semi-final, beating the 16-4 victory by Hendry over his current coach Terry Griffiths 12 years ago.

O'Sullivan said: "I do enjoy playing left-handed. It refocuses me. It re-energises my body and it is something I do enjoy doing.

"I am not too sure how good my left hand is because I haven't a full tournament with it. I haven't played regularly enough with it.

"I'll give it a bit of practice in the summer. That's a goal of mine, to improve my left-handed play, because I think I'll then be even more dangerous.

"I think I'm a top 16 player left-handed - but that remains to be seen and it is a goal of mine to get my left hand up to scratch.

"I just think it re-balances me. I see a different game. I feel like Mark Williams when I'm playing left-handed - just granite!

"He is granite and doesn't give a lot away and it's nice to feel like that sometimes when you are out there.

"I would consider playing a tournament left-handed, definitely. I might even play a season, next year. We will see."

O'Sullivan, who will face either Graeme Dott or Matthew Stevens in the final, also admitted swapping to the left-handed role helped him to relax and start enjoying the Crucible cauldron again.

He said: "What is pressure? It's a feeling we create. It's a big arena but you can't let that get to you. You have to be light, go out there and enjoy yourself.

"I was very conscious of that this week. A lot of players I watched looked as if their life depended on it. It is not like that.

"I did get visions when I played Andy Hicks that I wasn't enjoying it - and I wanted to get out of there at one stage. But then I started playing left-handed and I started to enjoy it again."

As for his display O'Sullivan said: " It was a good performance and I'm pleased with it. Stephen is a great player and if he had played to the top of his form and cued like he can then it would have been a different scoreline.

"I had to be on my guard and to also do some damage when I got in. It has got to be up there with some of the best performances I have done.

"I've watched Stephen over the years and he seems to do that sort of thing to opponents on a regular basis. It is just nice to do it against someone of Stephen's quality."

Hendry, who had won his previous three Sheffield meetings with O'Sullivan, paid tribute to his opponent's performance but insisted he is not a spent force himself.

He said: "Ronnie played great all through the match. You beat Ronnie by putting him under pressure and getting him at it but I was unable to do that. He played just too good.

"He is a fantastic front-runner. I just couldn't put any pressure on him. I've not lost like that at The Crucible but you've just got to sit there and admire the way the guy plays.

"If you let him play his natural game, he is going to run all over you. If you put him under pressure, he goes a bit.

"It was the best I've seen him play over a long match. He was very focused. He was taking his time over safety shots. Every department of his game was good. It was very impressive and more or less a demolition job.

"But it has not done any psychological damage to me because it's not as if I've felt I've played horrendously bad. When the other guy is potting all the balls there is nothing you can do about it.

"The fact is I've lost to a better player over three days. It's not all of a sudden that I've gone. It's not the end of my career by any stretch and still more world titles in me. Why not? "

Hendry believes O'Sullivan is a certainty to win the title if he continues to play in the same manner in the best of 35 frame final which starts on Sunday.

He said: "It would be a brave man to back against Ronnie.

"If he keeps playing like that, he is going to walk it.

"Another day can bring a new match but his attitude looks very good."