A barrage of heavy scoring from Shaun Murphy saw him thrash Marco Fu 6-2 to make the semi-finals of the China Championship in Guangzhou. Joining him are Stuart Bingham who came through a final frame decider with Michael Holt, John Higgins who thumped Ali Carter and Mark Allen who saw off World Champion Mark Selby in a tense battle.
Murphy started off with a century in his match with Fu and then added breaks of 69 and 66 before a century of 101 joined his earlier 129 break and gave him a resounding 4-0 lead at the interval, with Fu only scoring 33 points in the opening four frames. Fu did not add to his total in the fifth as Murphy cruised further clear with breaks of 63 and 64. The man from Hong Kong did put up a little fight by taking the next couple of frames. After Murphy saw his 4-0 lead against Perry turn into a level game at 4-4 in the first round before he came through, he would have been relieved to seal the win with by taking a scrappy eighth frame before Fu could threaten a comeback.
Murphy will now face a repeat of the final from his last tournament victory as he plays Stuart Bingham who came out on the right side of another tough battle with Michael Holt. Just a week ago the pair played out another match in the International Championship quarter-finals which went all the way to a decider with Bingham coming out on top and the same happened here in Guangzhou. Holt took a close opening frame, but then saw all of the next three go to his opponent who offered runs of 52, 56 and 66 to take a 3-1 interval lead. Following the break Holt was resurgent and took each of the next three himself contributing with breaks of 51, 72 and 90 to lead the match at 4-3 and turn it on it's head. Bingham was able to stop the rot and level the contest, prior to making his highest break of the match, a 118 in frame nine, putting him ahead once more at 5-4. Both players had chances in the tenth, but Bingham squandered his match winning opportunities and Holt made sure the contest went the distance once again. Unfortunately for Holt he did not score a point in the decider as a 57 from Bingham assisted him in his victory charge and put him into the semi-finals.
World Champion Mark Selby was beaten in a decider by Mark Allen, despite coming from 2-5 behind to do so in his true 'master of brinkmanship' style. Early on the two players were evenly matched, with Selby making a 61 in the second before Allen made his first century, a 114 in the third frame and the match was level at 2-2 going into the intermission with Selby winning the fourth on a re-spot. When the players returned the Northern Irishman went into overdrive. Kicking off in frame five with a break of 100 he then made that consecutive centuries with a 131 in the sixth and took a closer seventh to go one away at 5-2. Things are never simple against Selby though. An 89 in the eighth frame kept him in it, but Allen missed his chance to win it 6-3 and was severely punished when the match went to 4-5. Selby sensed his chance and rattled in a 127 break to force the decider. Under huge amounts of pressure it was Allen who responded getting in first with a run of 60 that nearly got him over the winning line and when his reprieve came on the colours he was able to get over the line.
Allen's semi-final opponent is John Higgins who won the last three frames of his match against Ali Carter to go from 3-2 to a 6-2 winner in no time at all aided by high breaks of 77 and 78 along the way, while Carter was only able to grind out a couple of close frames in the match and did not repeat the same form from his match against Judd Trump.
Semi-Final Draw and Schedule:
Matches played over the best-of-17 frames:
Mark Allen Vs John Higgins
Shaun Murphy Vs Stuart Bingham
Both matches to play first session of eight frames at 6.30am UK Time before playing to a conclusion from 11.30am UK Time.
Mark Allen and John Higgins will meet for the first time since the 2015 Masters, and despite their sporadic meetings it is in fact Allen who has won all of their last three major matches. Allen has also made five centuries this week which shows how well he has played so far compared to Higgins who unusually for him, has not made one century in his two victories this week.
Shaun Murphy and Stuart Bingham could well play out another close contest after their last two meetings in March's World Grand Prix final (a 10-9 win for Murphy) and the 2015 World Championship final (18-15 to Bingham). Bingham will have to hope for a good start tomorrow though after Shaun Murphy has gone 4-0 and 5-0 up in his two respective matches this week and started both of his matches with a century break so certainly looks to be in better form.
The matches will be played over two tables to set up the final, which is played over the best-of-19 frames on Saturday.
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