Defending champion Anthony McGill, number two seed John Higgins, Northern Irish Open champion Mark King and tour rookie Xu Si are the four remaining players left competing for the Indian Open title after a thrilling Friday in Visakhapatnam.
The last 16 matches took place in the morning and these saw a number of the big names exit the competition. Shaun Murphy was the most notable casualty as he fell victim to Elliot Slessor, who had already beaten Joe Perry 4-3 the night before. Slessor won three straight frames from 1-1 with breaks including a 67 and 77.
Meanwhile, Mark King produced a stunning final frame clearance to see off Stuart Bingham from 2-0 and 3-2 behind. King made breaks of 79 and 72 to level up after initially falling behind, and after Bingham regained the lead King came back again with a run of 84 to take the match all the way. Bingham came within a ball of winning the match, but a 43 clearance from King under the pressure was the decisive factor.
David Gilbert took care of Mark Allen in the last 16 in an excellent final three frames from 1-1 to win 4-1. Breaks of 61, 69 and a closing century of 102 saw Gilbert take the match out with Allen only scoring one point in the final three frames as the Englishman took control.
China's Xu Si produced his first upset of the day by beating Ricky Walden 4-3 in the last 16 with a run of 78. He joined Elliot Slessor as another of the four players that would make the quarter-finals of a ranking tournament for the first time. Liam Highfield was another as he beat one of last year's first time quarter-finalists in India, Akani Songsermsawad. Highfield took an early 2-0 lead but was shut out of the next two frames, with the Thai making breaks of 52 and 80. He added to that with a 56 in the fifth but it was not enough to win a key tight frame, and Highfield would soon win a tight sixth frame to close out victory.
Zhang Anda completed the quartet of first time quarter-finalists with a 4-3 win against the resurgent Ken Doherty. He then faced Anthony McGill after McGill had completed a simple victory 4-1 against Hossein Vafei.
In that quarter-final McGill was again dominant in a 4-0 win over Zhang. The Chinese player would only score 39 points in the match and was completely shut out of the final two frames. McGill's top breaks in the match were 57, 62 and 74 as he continued his strong defence of the title, and you would certainly not bet against him winning back to back Indian Opens now.
His semi-final opponent will be Mark King, after King saw off Elliot Slessor in the only quarter-final that did not end up being a whitewash. King did go 2-0 up and came close to making it 3-0, but Slessor was able to stay in the game by winning the tight third frame on the colours and get back to 1-2. King regained his two frame lead, before a run of 68 saw Slessor peg him back again to 2-3. However, it was the experienced man that finished things in style with a break of 110 completing a very good day at the office for King.
Xu Si was the only one of the first time quarter-finalists to make it through, as he completed yet another very impressive victory, whitewashing David Gilbert. The more experienced Gilbert would only score a total of 40 points in the match as Xu started well with a break of 72 and would then finish with runs of 52 and 60 to show why I tipped him as one of my players to watch at the beginning of the season here.
Xu will face an uphill task in the semi-finals though taking on tournament favourite John Higgins. The Scot had already beaten Michael Holt 4-1 in the morning before seeing off Liam Highfield 4-0. Highfield had his chances in the first two frames that both went close, but after that Higgins grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck with a 122 to lead 3-0 and then closing the match out with the assist of a 57.
Semi-Final Draw:
Anthony McGill Vs Mark King
John Higgins Vs Xu Si
You have to say that Higgins is a massive favourite in the second semi-final against Xu Si, but could the Chinese rookie have another big upset in him? Meanwhile the opening semi between McGill and King looks a lot tighter with both showing good form this week so far. McGill has not exactly had to play too many top seeded players up to this point, but he has still faced players that can cause trouble on their day. King meanwhile started the week with a walkover but has seen off an in-form Graeme Dott and one of the higher seeds in Stuart Bingham since then, before then making sure not to fall victim to another Slessor giant-killing.
The semi-finals are again over the best-of-7 frames format which means that anything could happen and the final that will follow later in the day is only a best-of-9 frames affair which again does not offer the top players a huge advantage. Having made the semi-finals the players are already guaranteed £15,000 which is a huge start for Xu Si, while the eventual runner-up takes home £25,000 and the overall winner taking the cheque for £50,000.
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