Ding Junhui and Judd Trump to meet in German Masters

Ding Junhui and Judd Trump will face off in the quarter-finals of the German Masters in what has the potential to be a blockbuster tie.

Both players came through well on Thursday evening in the last 16 with Ding seeing off Ricky Walden 5-2 while Trump took the final two frames to secure a 5-3 win over Joe Perry.

Ding was in fine form against Walden starting with a break of 54 to take the opening frame. Walden hit back strongly with a superb break of 102 but Ding followed in kind with an excellent 124 to regain his lead. Another Walden error left Ding in and a run of 75 made it 3-1 at the mid-session interval.

After the break, Walden showed that he wasn't going anywhere wading in with a contribution of 86 to stay in touch at 2-3. He could not keep in touch with Ding though he made a break of 69 to regain his two frame lead and move a frame from victory, and a break of 52 in the seventh helped Ding across the line.

Trump meanwhile had a tight tussle with Perry who took the opening frame with a run of 64 and had chances in the second and third frames before Trump took both to lead 2-1. A run of 54 then helped him into a 3-1 mid-session interval lead. Perry had a run of 68 in the fifth to stay in it and then saw off Trump's 55 in the sixth to take the frame on the colours and level at 3-3. Perry had a chance in the seventh but Trump was too strong and took the crucial 4-3 lead before finishing the match off by dominating the eighth and final frame.

Mark Williams is also into the quarter-finals, continuing his impressive form this season by making the last eight with a comfortable 5-2 win against Matthew Selt. Breaks of 65 and 70 were the highlights for Williams, while Selt had to come from behind to win the sixth frame and avoid a 5-1 loss but could not hold the Welshman off any further.

In the bottom half of the draw, Shaun Murphy was a comfortable winner 5-1 over Mark Joyce on Friday afternoon. Breaks of 59 and 90 saw him storm into an early 2-0 lead before Joyce got the third frame with a run of 73. Frame four was potentially the crucial one as Joyce built up a nice lead only for Murphy to hit back with a superb clearance and regain his two frame lead at 3-1. Following the mid-session interval, Murphy capitalised on Joyce's errors with a run of 65 taking the fifth frame before a run of 86 did the job in the final frame after a missed pink from Joyce.

Liang Wenbo's hopes of qualifying for the World Grand Prix have been ended after he lost out 5-2 in the all-Chinese last 16 match with Xiao Guodong. Xiao stormed into a 4-0 lead in the match aided by runs of 50, 60 and 62 along the way before he started to stutter. Chances came and went in both of the next two frames and Liang built an early 40 point lead in the seventh frame, but when his next chance came a good break of 75 got him over the line.

Ryan Day came through a deciding frame to clinch his spot in the last eight, despite two centuries from Mark Davis in a high quality affair. Davis opened up with breaks of 103 and 74 to lead 2-0 before Day went on a run of his own. Contributions of 54, 61 and a 115 were all part of a four frame winning streak that put the Welshman one away from victory at 4-2. Davis did not give up though, dominating the seventh frame and then making a 109 to force the decider. Day though got in front early in the decider and managed to hold off Davis to secure the win.

Last 16 results: 

Jimmy Robertson 5-3 Gary Wilson
Mark Williams 5-2 Matthew Selt
Ding Junhui 5-2 Ricky Walden
Judd Trump 5-3 Joe Perry
Ryan Day 5-4 Mark Davis
Shaun Murphy 5-1 Mark Joyce
Graeme Dott 5-4 Mei Xiwen 
Xiao Guodong 5-2 Liang Wenbo


Quarter-Final draw: (Picks in bold)

Mark Williams Vs Jimmy Robertson
Judd Trump Vs Ding Junhui 
Shaun Murphy Vs Ryan Day
Graeme Dott Vs Xiao Guodong


Jimmy Robertson is into his first ever full ranking event quarter-final as he takes on Mark Williams, but if he is to go any further he will need to turn around a poor head to head against the Welshman. Robertson has played Williams on four occasions but only picked up two frames. The way he is playing this season he should put up a better challenge here but there may also be some big game nerves here. Williams meanwhile is continuing his fantastic form at the moment and you certainly would not rule him out from winning a second ranking event of the season.

The blockbuster tie of the round is Judd Trump against Ding Junhui. The last two meetings between these two have been over longer formats (best-of-25 and best-of-17 frames) with Ding winning both of those. Trump looked very impressive in round one on the TV table against Ben Woollaston, but Ding looked equally as impressive in defeating Ricky Walden making very few mistakes. It really is a match that could need all nine frames to separate the pair, but if Ding plays as well as he did against Walden then Trump will not be able to make too many errors if he is to come out on the right side.

Shaun Murphy faces Ryan Day in another cracking match up. They recently met in the semi-finals of the UK Championship with Murphy winning 6-3 there in York, and he looks in great form again this week so far. He is the only player in the field to have played both his matches on the TV table which may give him a slight advantage here early on. With these players also playing twice on the day it is perhaps worth noting that Murphy needed three less frames to take care of his match against Joyce, while the Welshman went all nine frames with Mark Davis. Both guys are scoring well though and Day has been in good form too on the whole, aside from a defeat in China Open qualifying on Monday morning.

Finally, Graeme Dott will meet Xiao Guodong in what is a big match for both players in my view. Aside from the one-frame Shoot-Out, Xiao has not been in a ranking event semi-final since the 2013 Shanghai Masters where he was runner-up to Ding and therefore this presents a great opportunity for him. Dott's last ranking semi-final meanwhile was in this event two years ago and a victory here would put him into his third Tempodrome semi-final. These two met fairly recently, in November's Shanghai Masters with Dott winning 5-3 there, at a time when I fancied Xiao to win. Many will fancy the Chinese player again here after wins over Selby and Liang so far, but Dott himself has showed improved form this season and beaten Hawkins earlier this week. This is another match that looks like going all the way, which may well favour Dott and his great bottle to see him through.


The quarter-final matches all take place on Friday evening over the best-of-9 frames, before the tournament moves down to the one table set-up for Saturday's semi-finals.