Shaun Murphy is into the semi-finals after winning a mammoth match with Ryan Day that was decided on the final pink.
In the nine frames played of this tactical battle, there were only two breaks of above 50, the first of which was a 52 from Murphy in the opener - a frame he would eventually lose after Day came back from snookers required. However, Murphy won the second frame on the pink to equalise and then dominated the third to move 2-1 in front. Murphy had a couple of good chances in frame four to make it 3-1 at the break but a couple of misses from him left the door open for Day to level at 2-2.
The fifth frame was a long and tactical affair that would eventually go the way of Day, before Murphy dominated the sixth to level again at 3-3. The match high break came in frame seven when the Welshman compiled a superb break of 130 to move himself one up with two to play at 4-3. Murphy though was pretty dominant again in the eighth to take the match all the way.
The decider was a fantastic battle between both players. Lasting a total of 41 minutes, both players had their fair share of chances both early on and later on the colours. At different stages of the frame, both players had been warned after missing on two successive occasions when reds were visible, and the fact the final frame could have been conceded on the three miss rule at those two points only added to the drama. Eventually on the colours Murphy would knock in a magnificent yellow that looked like being a match winner, until overhitting position on the blue and subsequently the pink left his match ball a more difficult one. The miss into the middle would not cost him though with Day first missing the pink on a thin safety attempt, hitting it on the second attempt but going in-off to leave him needing snookers. A further foul a couple of shots later would see the Welshman concede and put a visibly relieved and exhausted Murphy into the semi-finals.
His opponent in the last four is comeback king Graeme Dott who came from 4-0 down to beat Xiao Guodong in a deciding frame that added further drama to quarter-finals night in Berlin. In the last 32, Dott came from 3-0 behind to defeat Barry Hawkins 5-3 but a round later he had to survive as Mei Xiwen came from 4-1 behind to force a decider so it has been a mixed route for Dott.
Dott had chances early on but breaks of 74 and 53 would help Xiao move into a 4-0 mid-session interval lead. Dott would get the fifth on the board without reply from his Chinese opponent, but soon found himself teetering on the edge as Xiao came close to victory with an early 62 break before Dott came back to force, and win a re-spotted black to make it 2-4. Xiao had early chances again in the next two frames but could not get the job done and when Dott took the seventh, he took the confidence from that to pile in the match high break of 85 and take the match all the way.
Again Xiao had chances in the decider, but it was Dott who would eventually get over the line on the colours and book a spot in his third German Masters semi-final.
Judd Trump came through the headline match of the evening against Ding Junhui. The highlight for Trump was making the new tournament high break in frame one with a superb 140. Ding took the next despite a 51 break from Trump, but the left-hander would then take the next two with some superb steals to move 3-1 ahead at the interval. A run of 57 in the fifth helped him to within one of the last four at 4-1.
In the sixth, he looked like easily clinching victory but went in-off on a break of 57 and Ding cleared to keep the match going. A scrappy seventh also went Ding's way to leave Trump fighting, and he was battling again in frame eight with the frame going down to the colours. However, he was able to win the exchange on the pink and move into the semi-finals.
Now, he will face an all left-handers battle with Mark Williams who has continued his brilliant form this season. He took on Jimmy Robertson in who was in his very first full-ranking quarter-final. Despite falling 2-0 behind to breaks of 57 and 89 from Williams, Robertson fought back and levelled at 2-2 with a run of 76.
Williams moved back in front at 3-2 but Robertson took the sixth without score from the Welshman to square it up again at 3-3. Williams reversed that by winning the seventh without score from Robertson, moving within one at 4-3. Both players had chances in the eighth but it was Williams who would win the battle on the final red and go on to clinch his place in the last four.
Quarter-final results:
Mark Williams 5-3 Jimmy Robertson
Judd Trump 5-3 Ding Junhui
Shaun Murphy 5-4 Ryan Day
Graeme Dott 5-4 Xiao Guodong
Semi-final draw: (Picks in bold)
Judd Trump Vs Mark Williams
Shaun Murphy Vs Graeme Dott
In the first semi-final, Shaun Murphy will meet Graeme Dott for the first time for nearly three and a half years. Their last meeting saw Dott win 5-3 at the last 16 stage of the Shanghai Masters. Murphy though has the lead 8-3 on the head to head but a lot of those games have gone close. In 2014 the pair met in the quarter-finals of the World Open, when Murphy fluked the final black to win 5-4 in a tournament he would go on to win. That was in a period of six matches in a row Murphy won against Dott.
Murphy is in fantastic form and aiming for his fifth final of the year, while Dott has needed 26 of a possible 27 frames to reach this stage but battled hard and come through against good opposition already. So, there is no reason why Dott cannot reach his first ranking final since the 2010 world championship, particularly if the match takes a similar style to Murphy's quarter-final with Day. Back on the TV table though Murphy could well find the same sort of stride that led to comfortable wins over McManus and Joyce with some good scoring.
The evening semi-final looks like another mouth watering battle as Judd Trump faces Mark Williams. Trump leads the overall head to head 8-4 (outside of the Championship League) and has won their last three meetings. When you think of these two you may remember 2015 when these two met five times with Williams winning three of those, and he is playing better now than he was in that period.
The fact Williams won in Northern Ireland will give him a lot of confidence coming back to the latter stages and he knows that he is capable of beating Trump on his day. Trump has been in good form this week coming through three difficult matches and he will have a point to prove after losing from 5-2 up in the Masters semi-finals two weeks ago. An in-form Williams here is going to be very tough to beat, as Mark Selby found on in the first round of the Masters and Trump is going to need to play at his best in my view to get the job done here.
Whatever the outcome, these should be two fascinating matches over the best-of-11 frames and in the perfect setting now that we are down to the one table set-up at the Tempodrome in Berlin.
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