What have we seen in the quarter-finals? Well, firstly Judd Trump romped through against 3rd seed Ding Junhui. Judd Trump took an early 6-0 lead in session one, and despite Ding winning the final two frames of that session he quickly found himself further adrift at 9-4. From there Judd played some more superb snooker and looked unstoppable to win the final three frames of the session, before coming back early on Wednesday morning for the singular frame that he needed to reach the one table situation for the third time in five years. Next up, Shaun Murphy had a tough match with qualifier Anthony McGill, Murphy started the first session with consecutive centuries and romped into a 3-1 lead. From there McGill won the next three to lead 4-3 before Murphy took the last of the session to level at 4-4. Early in the second session McGill went 6-5 ahead and Shaun was far from his best but after scrapping away and taking frame twelve to make it 6-6 at the mid-session break, he came out firing after it to take the next three after the interval to lead 9-6. Anthony wasn't giving in though and big breaks at the end of the second session and the start of the third saw Anthony close to 8-9. Some good breaks after that though from the Masters Champion and some key misses at key times from McGill saw Shaun Murphy win all of the next four frames though to secure his semi-final spot.
Then, on Wednesday evening we saw the end of the challenge of Ronnie O'Sullivan for a sixth world title as Stuart Bingham put up a brilliant performance to see the back of him. In the first session neither player played near their best but it was Stuart Bingham who was able to do enough to win that session at 5-3 and get a good position in the match. The second session began with a magical 145 from Bingham to level the high break of the tournament and go ahead 6-3. However, he lost all of the next three frames to be pegged back to 6-6. From there both had chances but it was Ronnie who went 8-7 ahead and looked good at one stage to take a 9-7 advantage into the final session. However, it didn't turn out that way and after an excellent safety on the final red, Bingham eventually earned his chance and he cleared to go in at 8-8. In the final session though Stuart Bingham was simply excellent as Ronnie O'Sullivan barely had a chance from 9-9 to 12-9 such was the quality of Bingham's break building. When Stuart's chance to clinch the match came along he stayed cool and played brilliantly again to seal the victory and clinch his first ever appearance in a World Championship semi-final beating his previous best of the Quarter-Finals in 2013.
Finally, Barry Hawkins and Neil Robertson went blow for blow to record the match of the tournament so far. Barry struggled early on as a high break of only 24 saw him go 3-1 down, but in the final four frames of the session and the first two of the next session Neil went off of the boil and Hawkins started to play well as Robertson only made 8 points in those frames to go 7-3 behind. He started to find a little bit of form after this though and four frames in a row saw the scores squared at 7-7. The next frame was the longest of the tournament so far at around an hour and 10 minutes and it saw Barry win it on the colours to go 8-7 up as they were taken off a frame early. In the evening, both players were well and truly at their best as the first four frames saw two centuries from Hawkins and a century and a 90 from Robertson as they went into the mid-session at 10-9 to Barry. Another couple of big breaks from Robertson including another 140+ break saw the Australian edge ahead at 11-10. Back came Barry though to take the next two frames and give himself two shots at getting into the semi-finals. Robertson needed plenty of chances to force the deciding frame, but eventually he saw that they went the distance. Robertson certainly looked the edgier of the two players in the decider as he missed a long pot from a ball in hand situation, leaving Hawkins a go at a tough red which he knocked in to kick start yet another 50+ break to win the frame and the match, and you could see what it meant to him to get into his third straight Crucible semi-final.
Quarter-Final Results:
Shaun Murphy 13-8 Anthony McGill
Barry Hawkins 13-12 Neil Robertson
Judd Trump 13-4 Ding Junhui
Stuart Bingham 13-9 Ronnie O'Sullivan
So then, we have a superb line-up for the Last 4 in Sheffield and it's still a very tough tournament to call even at this stage with such a small amount of players left in the event. With best-of-33 frames, four session semi-finals we are certainly now about to separate the real men from the rest here though...
Semi-Final Preview: (Picks in Bold)
Barry Hawkins Vs Shaun Murphy - This is probably the tightest call of the two semi-finals as both of these two guys are very evenly matched on their day and it's incredibly tough to tell how this will pan out over for sessions. The key of course will be for both players to get a foothold in the game early on, and build up from there with Friday being the day that they play two sessions, one in the morning and one in the evening. Shaun Murphy has obviously won a world title before and is the only one of the semi-finallists to have done so previously. Equally, this is also the first time that Shaun has gotten down to the one table set-up since 2009. That for me will make him even more determined than he has already looked so far in these Championships, as he attempts to make up for lost time and four quarter-final defeats since 2009. One other thing you look at in this tournament when you get to this stage is how much the players have got left in the tank. While Barry Hawkins has had a poor season and for that reason is still vey fresh, he's also played 16 more frames across the first three rounds than Shaun Murphy has had to play. That's hardly a small amount of frames, that's practically two extra sessions of snooker that Barry has had to play and that takes it out of you physically and mentally coming into a four sessions match. However, Barry has been terrific so far and never knows when he's beaten in these World Championships in the last three years, where in 2013 and 2014 it took a rampant Ronnie O'Sullivan to stop him, and he's been knocked out of the tournament. Shaun Murphy however is scoring just as well as Barry and anyone else in this tournament, and in my opinion he'll be confident, determined and is striking the ball as well as he ever has in his career. If he can maintain his concentration and focus for the really key moments in the remainder of this tournament then he's going to take some stopping, but as I say Barry never seems to know when he's beaten here either so we're going to be running close in the final session on Saturday afternoon.Prediction: 17-14 to Shaun Murphy
Judd Trump Vs Stuart Bingham - On paper, this may look like a little bit of a one sided match when it comes to how these two guys are playing and their records at the World Championships, but you'd be a fool to think it would pan out this way. Judd Trump has been playing the best snooker in most peoples opinions of the four guys left in the tournament and that I why he's the new bookies favourite. This is also his third appearance at the one table set-up in Sheffield in just 5 years, while for Stuart Bingham this is his first ever Crucible semi-final and for him that will bring a whole different type of nerves and pressure, as well as the expectation that people will be putting upon him following his victory over Ronnie O'Sullivan. What he needs to do is settle early and get some frames on the board early in the first session this evening or he could find himself on the back foot very early on as Judd Trump won't look back once he gets a few frames in front, as he only has one thing in his sights and that is winning. Stuart is never used to playing in these four session matches either, an while it's not that different from four in all respects, it still needs to be prepared for in a different sort of way to all of the other matches he's ever played in his life. The other thing i'd like to point out at this stage with Bingham is his overall failure to play at his best for large quantities of this championship. In the first round he was let off of the hook in his final session against Robbie Williams who started to play very poorly, while Graeme Dott barely turned up at all in their second round encounter. In the first two sessions against Ronnie neither player was at his best and to be a 8-8 not playing your best against O'Sullivan was the boost he needed though as he looked determined and had only considered one outcome in his mind, playing some of his best snooker to take five of the six frames played from 8-8 to 13-9. The one thing you just feel about this match is that there will be one session where Judd blows Stuart away, winning a session 6-2 and the problem for Stuart is that it's going to be very tough returning that favour later on in the match against someone playing as well in all areas of his game as Judd Trump is.
Prediction: Trump to win 17-11
This is the stuff that us snooker fans live for as we reach the one table set-up at the World Championships and all of the quality snooker, high pressured situations and drama that will be on display inside the next three days of semi-final action as the players bid for places in the showpiece occasion of snooker. The World Championship Final. I will be back following the semi-final conclusions on Saturday to preview the final which of course is played over four sessions on Sunday and Monday. Meanwhile, sit back, relax and enjoy what should be two cracking semi-finals.
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