Mark Selby, Marco Fu, Mark Allen and Shaun Murphy were the victors on quarter-finals day at the Haikou World Open and will now make up a superb semi-final line-up tomorrow, with some thrilling semi-finals in store. Mark Selby came through what could've been a much closer match against Alan McManus, after Alan McManus missed frame ball brown in the fifth to close to 2-3 and Selby forced a re-spot, which he then won to make it 4-1, by which time McManus was dead and buried. He now plays Marco Fu who was made to work slightly harder for his win against Mark Joyce.
Meanwhile, Shaun Murphy beat Graeme Dott on the final black in the deciding frame with a quite extraordinary fluke which left the Gdynia Open champion quite embarrassed. Murphy had led 3-0 before Dotty fought back in his classic style to go 4-3 in front with some great snooker, before Shaun forced the decider which he then won on the amazing fluke. He'll now play Mark Allen who beat John Higgins for the second year running in Haikou to keep up his hopes of a Haikou Hat-trick.
Quarter-Final Results:
Mark Allen 5-3 John Higgins
Shaun Murphy 5-4 Graeme Dott
Marco Fu 5-3 Mark Joyce
Mark Selby 5-1 Alan McManus
Semi-Final Preview: (picks in bold)
Mark Selby Vs Marco Fu - Both of these 2 guys have been playing brilliantly this week, with Mark Selby playing better in the last couple of games against Liang Wenbo and Alan McManus to show why I predicted him as tournament winner before the event started. However, he will have to pick up his performance another notch and bring out his really best form to beat Fu tomorrow. Marco has been playing sublimely in his last 2 games against Neil Robertson and then Mark Joyce, scoring amazingly and that will be tough for Selby to contend with so he will have to take his chances and show is usual brilliance in the safety department to have any chance.
Shaun Murphy Vs Mark Allen - Again here we will have another very close match between 2 players that are very evenly matched and have both been playing equally well this week so far. Shaun has good victories and produced some good performances to see off Jimmy White, Mark King, Ding Junhui and Graeme Dott and with some good scoring in these matches his confidence will be very high ahead of a very important match for him here. As for Mark Allen, he has probably played slightly better so far and been slightly more clinical in beating the likes of Mark Williams, Ricky Walden and John Higgins, and he is probably the slight favourite here to beat Shaun Murphy. Mark Allen has the better record in the Haikou World Open, having never lost a match in the tournament (with this being it's 3rd staging) and coupled with Murphy's poor record in major semi-finals, I fancy that Allen will just edge what will be a very entertaining and tense match.
Whether my predictions for the weekend are right or not, we are in for a very entertaining and exciting weekend of snooker with 4 very evenly matched players that could all easily win the event if they produce there best snooker. I'm really looking forward to it.
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