Ronnie O'Sullivan thrashed a very below par John Higgins yesterday afternoon to ease his way into the Welsh Open semi-finals in Newport, where has set-up a repeat of the World Championship final with Barry Hawkins, who played some sublime snooker to whitewash the man that ended the last Welsh hopes - Marco Fu.
The first semi-final this afternoon though will see Joe Perry, who beat an under performing Mark Selby 5-1 yesterday evening whilst also playing pretty well himself. He'll be up against Ding Junhui, who is searching for his 5th ranking title of the season, after Ding came back from 4-2 down against impressive young Joel Walker, making consecutive centuries in frames 8 and the decider to win the match.
Quarter-Final results:
Ding Junhui 5-4 Joel Walker
Joe Perry 5-1 Mark Selby
Barry Hawkins 5-0 Marco Fu
Ronnie O'Sullivan 5-1 John Higgins
Semi-finals Preview: (Picks in bold)
Ding Junhui Vs Joe Perry - Both players have played well and had some good victories this week, Perry has had the much tougher route so far beating Stevens and Bingham in deciders and thrashing a very below par Mark Selby who gave him lots of chances. One thing Perry won't get a lot of today is chances, just as many players have found out this season, including Joe in the German Masters quarter-finals. Ding has been scoring well all year, and again this week digging in when he's needed to and showing his class in times when things haven't looked so good. I fancied him to win the event before the start, and think he can go and finish it off now.
- I'm going for 6-3 to Ding Junhui as my correct score tip.
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Barry Hawkins - Much like the 2013 World Championship final when these 2 met, I think this match will be a lot closer than everybody thinks it will be. Barry Hawkins has played really well in his last 3 matches, especially last evening when he made very light work of a tough opponent in Marco Fu, making 2 centuries along the way, and his good scoring has been a feature of his Newport week so far. Ronnie hasn't really needed to be at his best so far this week, but has still looked very good without being at his absolute best. Barry will offer O'Sullivan his biggest test so far by far, and I think this will be a high quality, entertaining and close match.
- 6-4 to Ronnie O'Sullivan is my tip.
One thing you can guarantee is that whoever todays winners are, Sunday's best-of-17 final will be a very entertaining contest.
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