Neil Robertson won the last four frames of his International Championship quarter-final against Mark Selby, to end the Englishman's chances of winning a third International title in a row.
Selby took the opening frame with a break of 137 and despite an excellent 135 from Robertson to move him 2-1 ahead. From there the Australian would only score one more point before falling 4-2 adrift, as Selby added breaks of 83 and 133 to move towards a fourth International Championship semi-final in a row. A crucial and lengthy seventh frame went the way of Robertson to spark the fightback and he followed it up with two top class contributions of 113 and 95 to go 5-4 up. Selby had chances in the tenth after Robertson went in-off on a break of 53, but some unlucky positional play cost him and it was the 2012 runner-up he ran out victorious.
2012 champion Judd Trump was taken down 6-2 by Jack Lisowski with an emphatic win. Trump was not at the races early on in the contest, while breaks of 53, 95 and 71 put Lisowski 3-0 up. Trump got a frame on the board in the fourth and still had hope after a run of 119 got the match back to 2-4. Once Lisowski stole the seventh on the black though it looked like an impossible task for Trump and the game would not last much longer, as Lisowski swiftly compiled a match-winning 106 to book his semi-final spot.
Two-time runner-up Mark Allen has breezed into the semi-finals after a 6-0 whitewash win over Ali Carter. Allen started strongly with a break of 129, his eighth century of the week, giving him the opener. The second went to the Northern Irishman on the black and after breaks of 57 and 70 in the fourth he had taken a 4-0 lead into the interval. Just as Carter looked like giving himself a glimmer of hope in the fifth, Allen came from snookers required to go one away from victory and soon wrapped up his place in the last four.
Matthew Stevens is into his first ranking event semi-final since the 2013 Wuxi Classic after a third deciding frame victory in a row, defeating Martin O'Donnell 6-5. The Welshman started strongly with a the match high break of 127, though when O'Donnell cleared the colours to win the sixth frame on the black, Stevens had fallen 4-2 behind. Breaks of 63 and 85 in the next two frames saw Stevens level at 4-4 without O'Donnell scoring a point. The ninth also went the way of the former UK and Masters champion, though the left-hander responded to overcome the pressure and force a final frame. Both players had chances in the decider, and O'Donnell had a chance to force a re-spot after getting a snooker, but a missed green cost him and Stevens was relieved to get over the line.
Quarter-final results:
Neil Robertson 6-4 Mark Selby
Jack Lisowski 6-2 Judd Trump
Matthew Stevens 6-5 Martin O'Donnell
Mark Allen 6-0 Ali Carter
Semi-final draw: (Picks in bold)
Neil Robertson Vs Jack Lisowski - Saturday 3 November
Mark Allen Vs Matthew Stevens - Friday 2 November
The first best-of-17 semi-final comes over two sessions on Friday with Mark Allen facing Matthew Stevens. The pair last met at the 2017 China Championship with Stevens coming through in a deciding frame, while their most high profile meeting in recent years was the 2013 World Open final which Allen won 10-4 and was also the last time Stevens reached a final. This week has been a week of resurgence for Stevens who had not gone beyond the last 16 in a ranking event for over four years, though he has done it the hard way. He has needed 43 out of 44 in Daqing to make the semi-finals after a 6-4 win over Jordan Brown was followed by deciding frame wins over Mark King, Ding Junhui and Martin O'Donnell. Progress has not been completely plain sailing for Allen, who had to come from 4-0 and 5-2 down to defeat Liam Highfield in the last 64. Following that was a 6-3 winner against Hossein Vafei which featured breaks of 146 and 142, before a 6-1 win over Alfie Burden and a 6-0 thrashing of Ali Carter. Allen has made eight centuries in all this week and looks to be in the sort of form that took him to the Masters title in January, as he now aims for a third International Championship final. Stevens is looking like his old self this week, but Allen with the way he is playing is the favourite, though a close game can be expected if both play as they have been.
Saturday's semi-final features a repeat of the season's opening ranking event final between Neil Robertson and Jack Lisowski. Robertson won on that occasion, but that was Lisowski's first ranking final and brought obvious pressure along with it. The pair have played and scored very well all week and had tough routes to this stage. Robertson overcame Matthew Selt easily in round one but could have lost in each of the last three rounds, beating Perry 6-5, Yuan Sijun 6-4 with three frames in a row from 4-3 down, and defending champion Mark Selby 6-4 from 4-2 down. Lisowski meanwhile started the week against Chris Wakelin before defeating former finalist Marco Fu, last year's semi-finalist Martin Gould and 2012 champion Judd Trump. The key to this match will be how Lisowski handles the pressure in the latter stages and getting beyond the quarter-finals is a big step for him after losing three quarter-finals, losing 3-0 leads in two of them and playing badly in the other, since that Riga Masters final. There is also an extra carrot for Lisowski, who is provisionally 16th on the Race to the Masters list, as victory against Robertson would all but secure his place at the Ally Pally in January, though with that will come even further pressure. Robertson meanwhile has a chance this weekend to win his third ranking title in less than 12 months which would silence a lot of people that have been critical of him since a poor run of form that saw him fail to reach the 2018 Masters.
Both semi-finals will start and finish on the day shown above, over two sessions and the best-of-17 frames and full coverage will be on Eurosport TV.
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