Ronnie O'Sullivan is into the last four of the English Open after overcoming the in-form Jack Lisowski 5-2.
Lisowski had already beaten Judd Trump and Mark Williams in the two previous rounds to make his way into the quarter-finals, and he started well against O'Sullivan with a break of 128 to take the opening frame. That was really as good as it got for Lisowski, as O'Sullivan found his form and took control of the game from there. A run of 64 helped him level the match before a break of 125 put him 2-1 in front. Lisowski had chances in the two frames either side of the interval but O'Sullivan had the upper hand in the safety battles and took both frames to lead 4-1 and go one away from victory. Runs of 66 and then 61 in the sixth frame kept Lisowski's hopes alive but a couple of missed chances in the seventh proved critical and O'Sullivan completed a 5-2 win.
He will now play Anthony McGill who came through a tight contest with Neil Robertson. The Australian took the opening frame of the contest with a nice 85 and led in the second frame before McGill cleared with 65 to level up the contest. Robertson soon made up for that with a contribution of 79 putting him ahead again. McGill did not let Robertson get away from him though and made sure they went into the mid-session break all square with a run of 82. Robertson hit the front once again after the interval but a 69 break from McGill again kept him in touch. The seventh frame was a rather ugly affair but it proved vital for McGill as he controlled it and would eventually take it to lead for the first time at 4-3. It did not take him long to finish things thereafter with a match high break of 86 securing his spot in the last four.
Meanwhile, the amazing run of Alexander Ursenbacher continued as he whitewashed Michael White to book his semi-final spot. Prior to this week he had never made it past the last 32 in a ranking event, but he overcame Anthony Hamilton, Gerard Greene and Stuart Carrington in the early stages to take care of that detail. That set-up a last 16 tie against Shaun Murphy where Murphy barely saw a ball after winning the opening frame. He kept that going in this quarter-final with breaks of 51, 55, 84 and 93 to take the opening four frames in no time at all before coming back after the interval and quickly finishing the job. That has guaranteed the Swiss 21-year-old £20,000 and a strong base to build on from in the next year and a half that he is guaranteed on the tour with his current card, whatever happens on Saturday.
Kyren Wilson is the man he will now face after the World Open runner-up came through a tight match with Hossein Vafei. If the first three frames were fairly one-sided, the first going to Hossein and the next two to Wilson, the following set of three frames were incredibly tight with each being decided on the colours. Hossein came back from snookers required to win the fourth and level the match going into the interval but Wilson would edge the next two to take a timely two frame advantage at 4-2. A run of 52 in the seventh kept the Iranian in the match, but he could not take his chances in the next and Wilson did not let him off the hook, calmly securing a 5-3 win.
Quarter-Final Results:
Anthony McGill 5-3 Neil Robertson
Ronnie O'Sullivan 5-2 Jack Lisowski
Alexander Ursenbacher 5-0 Michael White
Kyren Wilson 5-3 Hossein Vafei
Semi-Final Draw:
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Anthony McGill
Kyren Wilson Vs Alexander Ursenbacher
The afternoon semi-final sees Ursenbacher take on Wilson in what will be a brilliant match if the Swiss player can carry on his heavy scoring form. The two players have only met on one previous occasion before Wilson's Shanghai Masters breakthrough, in the 2014 Wuxi Classic qualifiers with Ursenbacher winning 5-4 although given how different the two of them are now I'm not sure you can take too much from that meeting. We've already seen what Ursenbacher is capable of this week in his wins against top players like Murphy and White who he complete shut out of those two games and he will be full of confidence. Wilson meanwhile will be looking for a second final in three events following his run in Yushan a month ago and his experience under the TV lights could be the crucial factor here. There may naturally be some nerves from Ursenbacher but those have not stopped him in the last two matches when he was at a stage of an event that he had not been to before, so there will be no simple task for Wilson.
Then we come to O'Sullivan and McGill which could again be a close encounter. However, the Rocket has won on each of the five occasions the two have played in the past, the last three of which were all over the same best-of-11 frames format that this match will be played over. In his post-match Eurosport after beating Neil Robertson, the Scot said he would not have a chance of victory against Ronnie, and whether that is a way of him taking the pressure off of himself, a man in good consistent form should have more belief than that. McGill was a quarter-finalist at the Riga and European Masters as well as the World Open, a week after he came so close to defending his Indian Open crown. O'Sullivan meanwhile is not only the favourite here but also a clear favourite for the title and even when he's not quite at the top of his game he still takes some beating, particularly in the latter stages of these events. If Ronnie scores as well as you expect him to, McGill will have to have his top scoring boots on just to stay with him.
These should be two very intriguing semi-finals then as the English Open goes down to one table and reaches its boiling point.
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