After the performances of Maguire and Trump on Thursday night you'd have been forgiven for thinking that they would make it through to the last 4 but Dott and Gould had other ideas. Dott in fact won five frames on the trot to beat Stephen Maguire after Maguire won the opener. A break of 65 took Dott into the lead at 3-1, but his highest break of the match was a 71 clearance in frame six to win the match after Maguire had made a break of 61 in the frame and was looking to get back into it.
Graeme will now play Martin Gould in the last four after Gould fell over the line in the deciding frame against Judd Trump. This match was on the TV table, and the pinner potter started well with a century to lead 1-0, and after falling 2-1 adrift he made a cool 69 to go into the interval level at 2-2. A 73 from Trump edged him ahead again but he kept giving chances to his opponent who took the next two to lead 4-3. Gould then had chances in the eighth but could not kill off the match and was only just able to survive a counter in the decider, when from a fluked snooker on the final red he took his chance to win.
In the bottom half of the draw we had a couple of comebacks. First was Luca Brecel who despite breaks of 80 and 59 in the opening six frames, while Mark Joyce had only weighed in with one break of 50+, found himself 4-2 behind. From there though he quickly won the seventh frame with a run of 79 to ramp up the pressure on Joyce. The eighth was the key as both players had chances, but the Belgian was able to clear from the last red to force the evenings second decider. In that decider Brecel was able to take the very first chance he had, killing off the match in one visit with a break of 102 which is a magnificent break under pressure to reach his second ranking event semi-final, a year on from his first.
The final match of the evening gave a win for Shanghai Masters champion Kyren Wilson over Ryan Day, again from 4-2 behind. It was quite a scrappy match with both players having chances as most of the frames went down to the colours. After three tight frames to start Day was ahead at 2-1, despite Wilson having a break of 56 in losing frame two. The Welshman consolidated with a 57 on the way to dominating frame four and moving into the interval 3-1 in front. Frame five was certainly a key one as Day countered after an early 57 from Wilson (his highest break of the match) but an in-off on the final pink as he went around the table for black ball position saw him miss his opening and the young man eventually potted the pink to get the score back to 2-3. Despite that disappointment the three times ranking event runner-up took the next to lead 4-2 as the match turned nervy. Wilson cleared to pinch frame seven on the black and then cleared again in frame eight to force the nights third deciding frame (still unable to beat the clean sweep of deciders in last years quarter-finals). The final frame was pretty low scoring after Wilson's early 31 and Day was unable to get on colours from the reds he was potting at the back end of the frame. Eventually, after potting the final red with no colour the 2014 Berlin semi-finalist was left needing snookers and Wilson got over the line.
Quarter-Final Results:
Graeme Dott 5-1 Stephen Maguire
Martin Gould 5-4 Judd Trump
Luca Brecel 5-4 Mark Joyce
Kyren Wilson 5-4 Ryan Day
Semi-Final Preview: (Picks in Bold)
Martin Gould Vs Graeme Dott - The first best-of-11 frame semi-final in the afternoon sees two experienced heads facing off. Martin Gould has obviously been going brilliantly this week with the bottle he has shown to beat both Mark Williams and Judd Trump in deciders and Ben Woollaston easily in round two. Graeme Dott meanwhile has very much been going under the radar but he has only dropped five frames on the way to the semi's which in wins against Tian Pengfei, Masters runner-up Barry Hawkins and Selby's conqueror Stephen Maguire is a fantastic effort. Both players have been scoring well and it is obviously a big game for both. Dotty doesn't get to the latter stages of events often, which means that when he does you know he has really found something in his game. Martin as I continue to say looks a lot more solid this season than he has for a long time and you have to say that he is not far away from winning a ranking title. On the other side of the coin, Gould will now see the draw and sense a real opportunity to do exactly that as he is probably the favourite of the four remaining players. That means though that he will be under the pressure of the expectations upon him, while Graeme can continue to play his own solid game as the underdog once more.Kyren Wilson Vs Luca Brecel - Then in the evening it is all about the young guns. Kyren Wilson of course is the more experienced as the ranking event winner from back in September at the Shanghai Masters and this week for him has been all about grinding away and showing a cool head to come through three deciding frames in his three matches with a best break in the tournament so far of only 61 and only other four breaks of 50+ in total so far in the tournament. By contrast Luca has been scoring beautifully in his wins over Zhao Xintong, Kurt Maflin and Mark Joyce. Against Joyce he showed great courage to win his decider with a 102 break and had four breaks of 50+ in that single match, to go with three against Maflin, and another four against Xintong. It seems as though he is having another one of his hot streaks this week the likes of which have seen him to the Welsh Open semi's a year ago and of course to the UK quarter-finals in 2012 and despite all of this he is still only 20. Tomorrow is all about big game nerves, though he will still be seen as the underdog against Wilson, who himself wore that tag throughout his run to the Shanghai title, and it will be interesting to see how he goes in the big match in the big arena. You have to say though last year Luca took a big step in reaching the Welsh Open semi's and if he can win this one it will be another big step. It would also be a massive moment for this event and European snooker if he, as the representative for mainland Europe, could somehow go on and win the title this week. Expect it, like Brecel's semi in Cardiff last year against Higgins, to be another close one.
A very exciting line-up then with two players in Brecel and Gould who have never won ranking titles, someone in Graeme Dott who is after his first ranking title since the 2007 China Open, while Kyren Wilson is going for his second ranking title just five months on from his first in Shanghai. All set to be a nerve wracking and entertaining end to the week as we go down to the one table set up at the Tempodrome.
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