Ding Junhui, Judd Trump, Mark Selby and Stuart Bingham made it through to the semi-finals of the International Championships on a dramatic Thursday in Daqing.
Home favourite Ding was the first man through with a crushing 6-2 victory over defending champion John Higgins. Higgins took the opening two frames, despite a break of 70 in the second frame from Ding. After getting on the board in the third the Chinese great hit Higgins with a barrage of big breaks. An 81 made the match level at the intermission, before a 56 put him in front. Consecutive centuries of 104 and 130 in frames six and seven put him one away from victory, before he clinched the match in the next courtesy of a 63.
Ding will now play Judd Trump in Friday's semi-final after a thriller with Shaun Murphy. Trump made three centuries in the match, the first of which came in frame three to make it 2-1, before Murphy clearly levelled with the first of four breaks in the 70's that he made in the contest. Another century following the mid-session interval put Trump 3-2 ahead but he lost all of the next three frames to runs of 77, 75 and 70 as Murphy put himself a frame away from the semi-finals at 5-3 and was looking very strong at this stage. However, Trump hit back in the next two frames with Murphy failing to pot a ball as a break of 74 followed by Trump's highest break of 119 forced the decider.
The decider was worthy of a match of it's own with the amount of drama it created. After early chances for Trump, Murphy then cleared the final few reds to take a handy lead on the colours but turned down the yellow early on, before narrowly missing a tough attempt that would likely have clinched him the match. Trump then clawed his way back into things and looked like clearing when he potted the blue after earlier getting out of a tough snooker when Murphy would have been over the winning line with a miss. On potting the pink into the yellow pocket he looked like landing perfectly on the black until the cue ball caught the bump of the middle pocket leaving him in no man's land. After a few safety shots, Murphy came incredibly close to doubling the final black the full length of the table into the yellow pocket. Trump then had an attempt at a thin cut, but missed and left a long chance on for Murphy. He went for it, but the black came all around the table and left a simple match ball for the left-hander to put himself into yet another semi-final.
World Champion Mark Selby overcame Joe Perry 6-3, despite a small fightback from his opponent, to book his place in the last four for the second year in succession. Perry won the opener but then Selby went into overdrive. Consecutive centuries of 132 and 127 sent Selby ahead before he dominated the fourth frame to stop Perry potting a ball or scoring a point for the third frame in succession. A tight fifth also went to the World number one, and when the sixth followed he was one away from victory. Runs of 64 and 86 kept the Gentleman in the match at 3-5, but a tight ninth frame got Selby over the line.
He will now play the World number 2 Stuart Bingham after Bingham held off a valiant Michael Holt fightback to come through 6-5. Holt did not get out of the gates in the opening four frames, after his win over Ronnie O'Sullivan in the Last 16, and runs of 87, 80 and a further 80 put Bingham 4-0 ahead and cruising into the mid-session interval. Holt did not give up though and the tables well and truly turned. He took all of the next four frames, helped by match high breaks of 81 and 63 to come all the way back and square the match at 4-4. Bingham hit back in the ninth superbly with a 131 break to have two bites at the cherry to win the match. The game became understandably tense at this stage and Holt was able to force a decider to increase the tension. It came down to the final reds but Bingham eventually got over the line to book his semi-final place.
Along with that victory Bingham has booked a place in the Champion of Champions in two weeks time. As the highest ranked player on the one-year money list not already qualified, as well as the only player left in the tournament not to have qualified, whether he wins the tournament or not he will get the 15th place. Meanwhile, if the winner of the China Championship next week is already in the Champion of Champions it will be Joe Perry that takes the place as the next highest ranked player on the one-year money list.
Semi-Final Schedule:
Judd Trump Vs Ding Junhui - Friday 28th September (First session 7am UK Time and Final session 12.30pm UK Time)
Mark Selby Vs Stuart Bingham - Saturday 29th September (First session 7am UK Time and Final session 12.30pm UK Time)
The semi-final matches are played over two days with Trump and Ding's up first on Friday and each will be played over the best-of-17 frames. It will be the first time Trump and Ding have met since the second round of the World Championships when the Chinese number one came out on top, in his run to the final. For Trump he will be looking to get to his third ranking event final in a row and with nine centuries to his name in his four matches so far this week he is clearly still on top form. As for Ding he has had a couple of scares against Mitchell Mann and Ricky Walden but aside from that his wins have been comfortable and full of high breaks also.
On Saturday it will be the turn of World numbers one and two when 2016 World Champion Mark Selby faces 2015 World Champion Stuart Bingham. The pair met recently in the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters when Selby made one of his trademark comebacks. Prior to that the pair had not for nearly three years (when they had four meetings in the space of a year which were shared). Bingham had had three comfortable wins to open up this week and in the early stages of his match against Michael Holt it looked like being four easy wins out of four. If given the chance though he will need to finish off Selby as soon as possible with thoughts fresh in his mind of Selby's Shanghai comeback and Holt's fightback today. Selby has had to play one extra match this week with his heldover Last 128 tie, so will surely welcome the day off. He was pushed by Paul Davison before comfortable wins over Alfie Burden and John Astley. He had to dig in against Liang Wenbo to win 6-5 before then playing another tough player in Perry, so both players will be well prepared for the battle on Saturday.
The winner of the Trump Vs Ding contest will have the benefit of a day off before Sunday's best-of-19 frame final, which could be an advantage if Selby and Bingham's clash runs close on Saturday.
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