Shaun Murphy and Ronnie O'Sullivan both booked their places in the last four of the UK Championships with comfortable wins in Friday's quarter-finals.
Murphy was the most impressive performer, with sublime long potting and a pot success of 94% helping him on the way to a 6-1 victory over Mark King who could not keep his run of great results going.
King had already overcome Luca Brecel and John Higgins to reach the last eight but has a very poor record against Murphy and lost their last meeting just a few weeks ago in Coventry. Murphy chalked up the first frame with a run of 71 before King bagged his only frame of the night thanks to a 53 break in the second frame.
From there, Murphy was dominant and King could not live up to his previous performances. Contributions of 56 and 78 had the 2008 UK Champion ahead 3-1 at the interval and he continued moving towards the line at some pace after that break. A 75 in frame five was followed by a nice 60 in the sixth to put him one away from victory at 5-1. The seventh was not taken in one visit, but Murphy was able to take his foot off the gas and cruise over the line in the end.
In the opposite half of the draw, Ronnie O'Sullivan was not troubled by his shorter turnaround as he saw off a mini revival from Martin Gould to eventually come through 6-3. Gould did not make O'Sullivan work as hard for his chances as he would have liked in the opening three frames, as the Rocket started with superb breaks of 107 and 106 and also took the third frame comfortably to race out in front. Gould had chances in the fourth frame but O'Sullivan won the battle on the final red ad was able to take that one too to move 4-0 in front. It looked all but over when a break of 55 saw O'Sullivan steal the fifth as well to move a frame from the semi's at 5-0.
However, Gould battled on and made his own century, a 101 in the sixth ensuring that he was not whitewashed. Contributions of 61 and 70 helped him to the next two as well as he started to put a little bit of pressure on the front runner for this title in York. When O'Sullivan's opportunity presented itself though in frame nine, he was able to take it with both hands. A nice break of 94 clinched a 6-3 victory.
The match between Stephen Maguire and Joe Perry told a similar tale with Maguire the one that came through 6-3. After stealing the first couple of frames from Perry, the Scotsman surged ahead and came from behind again to take the fifth and lead 5-0. Runs of 57 and 61 helped Perry get back into the contest and at 3-5 Maguire may have been starting to feel the pressure. If he was, it did not show with a convincing break of 75 sealing his date with O'Sullivan in the first semi-final.
The final match of the round saw Ryan Day come through in a late night finish 6-5 over Mark Joyce. Joyce came back well from an early 2-0 deficit to lead 3-2 after breaks of 54, 106 and 71. Day was able to level the scores at 3-3 despite only having a highest break of 38 at this stage of the match. That did not improve in the seventh when Joyce regained the lead with a run of 62. A new high break for the Welshman did come in frame eight as he compiled 55 on the way to levelling again at 4-4 and his best spell of the match followed with a superb 111 putting him in front again at 5-4. In search of his first full ranking event semi-final, Joyce kept fighting and dominated the tenth frame to force a decider. He had his chance halfway through the decider, but missed a red along the cushion and left Day the chance he needed to leave Joyce needing snookers and ultimately book his place in the last four.
Quarter-Final results:
Ryan Day 6-5 Mark Joyce
Shaun Murphy 6-1 Mark King
Stephen Maguire 6-3 Joe Perry
Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-3 Martin Gould
Semi-Final draw:
Shaun Murphy Vs Ryan Day
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Stephen Maguire
The afternoon semi-final sees O'Sullivan face Maguire in a match-up that has produced some excellent play down the years. Outside of the Championship League they have met 18 times, but it is O'Sullivan with the huge head-to-head advantage having won 14 of those games. They have not faced off though for nearly four years, since O'Sullivan won 6-2 against Maguire in the 2014 Masters semi-finals. You have to go back nearly ten years for Maguire's last win against O'Sullivan in a major event on British soil at the 2008 Masters, so it certainly seems as though the Rocket has the edge though.
One thing I would say is that Maguire really looks to have come back to form this year, and has played really well this week to reach the last four. O'Sullivan meanwhile has suggested he might not have a lot left in the tank after a busy schedule in recent weeks and following a very tough last 16 match with Akani Songsermsawad. Despite all of that he still played well against Gould and Maguire has to block out the added carrot of a win in this match getting him back in the top 16, just in time to qualify for the Masters as that puts a lot of added pressure on the match. It is still nearly five years since Maguire last won a full ranking title and he has only been to one final in that period, in a more minor event in Riga this June.
Meanwhile, there is not much in the head to head between Shaun Murphy and Ryan Day in the second semi-final as the pair have only faced each other once outside of the Championship League since the 2011 German Masters. That meeting came in February of this year when Day saw off Murphy 4-2 in the World Grand Prix on the way to making the final.
This week though, Day has had to fight hard and has now officially booked his place in the Masters but has won deciders in each of the last three rounds to make the semi-finals. He could easily have been beaten in any of those three matches against Joyce, Li Hang and Mark Williams and you have to wonder how much he has left in the tank after those three gruelling matches as he was far from his best against Joyce in the last eight. Shaun Murphy meanwhile has only dropped five frames since coming through a last 64 decider against Liam Highfield. King and Ricky Walden have been dispatched for the loss of just two frames and Murphy has looked strong. His scoring has been good and his long potting against King and earlier in the last 32 against Jimmy Robertson was sublime. Inevitably, when Murphy is potting well from long range he goes far in tournaments, because of the sheer number of chances he is able to carve out for himself. If both play to their capabilities then this will be a good battle, but up to press it is certainly Murphy who looks the most in-form of the two.
Semi-final matches again take place over the best-of-11 frames to set up Sunday's best-of-19 frame showpiece final.
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