Mark Williams is into the semi-finals of the Northern Ireland Open after a crushing victory over Mike Dunn.
After a long opening semi-final, the two players were left waiting for hours before finally getting to play, and it was actually Dunn who took the opening frame of the contest. From there though it was all about the Welshman. A 63 break helped him to the second frame, and Dunn missed his chance on the colours in frame three before Williams picked up the pieces to lead 2-1. A run of 71 in the fourth helped extend that lead to 3-1 at the mid-session.
Any hopes of a Dunn fightback were damaged in the fifth when a contribution of 53 assisted Williams in making it 4-1 and it was not long before the sixth frame was in the bag either, and a 5-1 win was assured along with a place in the last four.
In the opposite half of the draw to the Welshman, there will be an all-Chinese semi-final after Yan Bingtao and Lu Haotian came through in deciding frames. Yan had to do it the hard way though after falling 3-1 behind at the mid-session interval. He could easily have won the opening frame but lost it on the black, and Robert Milkins then doubled his lead with a fine century break of 105. Yan got a foothold in the match by taking the third frame with a nice 95 break, but Milkins regained his two frame cushion by taking the fourth in one visit, with a run of 73.
Both players had chances in the fifth frame, Milkins probably should have won it but it was Yan that eventually got it on the board to start his fightback. Soon with a break of 66 in the sixth the match was all squared up at 3-3 and a superb 89 to follow had the Chinese sensation ahead 4-3. A break of 50 was not enough to take out the match in frame eight, as Milkins potted a superb long final red and cleared the colours to take the match the full distance. The decider was very even, but Yan won the crucial battle on the last red and was able to clear the colour, and fist pumped with delight as he booked his place in his second ranking semi-final in the space of a month.
Lu came through the all-Chinese quarter-final against Tian Pengfei in a decider. Lu took the first couple of frames after Tian failed to take his chances early on in the match, but he soon found his way with a break of 50 giving him the third before then taking the frames either side of the interval to lead the match 3-2. Lu fought back well with a run of 64 to square the match at 3-3 and then took the seventh as well to put himself one frame from a maiden ranking event semi-final.
Tian was not going anywhere though and made the highest break of the match, a 95, to force the ninth and decisive frame. Again both players had chances in the decider, but Lu made to crucial break to clear the last few reds, and despite a long battle for snookers from Tian on the colours, it was Lu who would eventually book his place in the last four.
Elliot Slessor won the opening marathon quarter-final of the day, to deny Li Yuan making it three Chinese players in the semi-finals. There was only one break of above 50 in the whole contest, a 52 from Slessor in the fifth, in a match that did not match the standard of some of the other games on display. Li did lead 2-0 early on, but was soon pegged back to 2-2 at the interval by Slessor who would then move 3-2 and 4-3 in front before being pegged back into a decider. When it came down to it though, Slessor was the man able to hold his nerve the best and set up a semi-final with Williams.
Quarter-Final Results:
Yan Bingtao 5-4 Robert Milkins
Lu Haotian 5-4 Tian Pengfei
Elliot Slessor 5-4 Li Yuan
Mark Williams 5-1 Mike Dunn
Semi-Final Draw:
Yan Bingtao Vs Lu Haotian
Mark Williams Vs Elliot Slessor
The first semi-final on Saturday afternoon sees Mark Williams take on Elliot Slessor. Williams may be a firm favourite for this match but the outcome cannot be taken for granted. It will be a tough task for Slessor over the best-of-11 frames, but the Englishman has already beaten Williams this year in a best-of-7 frames contest in the first round of his home tournament, the Welsh Open. He should be able to bring in some confidence too from the fact he overcame Ronnie O'Sullivan earlier in the week. As for Williams, he has looked very strong this week only dropping four frames so far and his scoring has been pretty good throughout the week and I think that may make all of the difference in this contest. His years of experience can certainly not be matched by someone with the nerves of playing in his first career semi-final, and Slessor will surely have to be at his absolute best to make it into Sunday's final.
The second semi-final sees a 17-year-old Yan Bingtao take on Lu Haotian who will celebrate his 20th birthday next week. Their combined age is five years less than Williams. However, they are both absolutely top quality players who have already shown this before making this semi-final. Yan Bingtao of course has already beaten Ryan Day and defending champion Mark King to get this far, and was a semi-finalist just a few weeks ago at the International Championship, overcoming Ronnie O'Sullivan and John Higgins in the process. Some of the wins he has had in just a year and a half on tour are phenomenal and now he is guaranteed to be in the world's top 32 at the end of this week whatever happens from here.
As for Lu Haotian it has been a long road back for him. It is over five years since he made the quarter-finals of the International Championship as a wildcard and four years since he made a final on the Asian Tour in his first few months on the tour. It has taken him a couple of years to get back on tour after his relegation in 2015 but now he looks to be back to his best and is still only 19 which given how long he has been around, is simply remarkable. He has overcome some strong players again this week, without necessarily beating the top players that Yan has recently. The 17-year-old already looks so comfortable on the big stage and that may make the difference here in a battle between two fairly inexperienced players at this level.
The semi-finals run over the best-of-11 frames to set up Sunday's best-of-17 showpiece.
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