The first man through today was Judd Trump. He played a very attacking match with Mark Williams who made a century in the only frame he won in the match in frame four. Unfortunately for Mark he had plenty of chances in the match but just missed too many vital balls, and he could quite easily have won all of the first three frames, but went 3-0 down instead before making his century. Williams had chances again to get back in the match at 2-3, but he couldn't take them and Trump moved 4-1 ahead and soon had the match finished at 5-1.
There was more drama on the other table where defending champion Stuart Bingham took on Martin Gould. Martin got off to a really good start, dominating to take a 3-1 lead at the interval. Stuart got back to within one frame with an 88 break, but it was all Gould in frame six as he went one away from victory at 4-2. Chances came and chances went for Gould in both frames 7 and 8, but he missed shots he would've expected to get and looked nervy, while Stuart didn't have to do anything special to force a decider. Bingham had the best chance in that decider and a break of 60 was enough to eventually see him over the line and continue his title defence with a 5-4 quarter-final win.
The man he beat in the final last year, Mark Allen, has kept himself in the hunt to go one better than his final loss to Bingham last year after he beat Mark Davis 5-1. It wasn't the most spectacular match, mainly due to the conditions which saw a number of kicks, particularly towards the end of the match. Allen took the opening couple of frames, and had chances to win the third, but Davis cleared to force a re-spotted black which both players had chances at before it sunk for Davis and he made it 1-2. He had a good chance in the fourth too but a break 50 wasn't enough to win him the frame and Allen was able to do enough to take a commanding 3-1 lead at the break. Straight after the interval Allen consolidated his lead with a quick fire 88 to make it 4-1. After a kick on the green killed Davis chance to clear in the sixth, Allen then had a kick on the yellow, but Davis missed again and the Northern Irishman was able to clear and finish off the match.
The best match of the day was most certainly the one between Kyren Wilson and home favourite Ding Junhui. An 89 got Kyren going in the opener, and despite a 50+ in frame three Ding was struggling and trailed 3-1 at the mid-session. Post interval Ding came back much stronger as breaks of 62 and 87 squared up the match at 3-3 and you wondered whether that was Kyren's chance gone. It wasn't though as he made a flawless 84 to re-take the lead at 4-3, before Ding took the match into a final frame courtesy of a contribution 63. The decider was a scrappy one in the end, with Ding have the first chance, before Wilson got back into it. In the end it went down to the colours and with the pink over a corner pocket a long safety bout on the brown was to decide matters. After plenty of quality shots from both, Ding's safety play eventually let him down, and after good shots on the brown, blue and pink to give him the chance on a tricky black with so much on the line, Wilson soon hammered "the biggest shot of his life" into the back of the pocket.
Quarter-Final Results:
Stuart Bingham 5-4 Martin Gould
Judd Trump 5-1 Mark Williams
Kyren Wilson 5-4 Ding Junhui
Mark Allen 5-1 Mark Davis
Semi-Final Preview: (Picks in Bold)
Stuart Bingham Vs Judd Trump - These two have had some interesting matches in big events over the course of the last 3 years, the best of which was their most recent, in the semi-finals of the World Championship. That's a defeat that Judd will be looking to avenge and it really doesn't feel like either one of these two is playing at their best this week so it should make for a close game. Bingham had two pretty easy games to make the quarters and didn't need to play his best, and eventually he came back to beat Gould by just sticking in there and hoping that Martin would make a few errors which he did with a bit of luck also going Stuart's way. Judd though has played slightly better, taking advantage of the errors made by Mark Williams and Robert Milkins, whilst also producing more breaks in the game with Matt Selt including a gutsy 41 clearance in the decider. For this reason I think Judd is going to win this one tomorrow either 6-3 or 6-4.Mark Allen Vs Kyren Wilson - I'm really looking forward to watch this one and seeing what Kyren can produce after three superb results this week. He started by coming through the wildcard round comfortably and taking that on to the main draw with 5-2 and 5-1 wins in the Last 32 and Last 16. Today against Ding he was very impressive when he easily could've folded under pressure at 3-3 after Ding's fight back and in the decider on the colours also, but he showed plenty of bottle to come through. One thing that worries me is how much he's going to have left after such a battle with Ding, one which went on past midnight in Shanghai, and more than anything it would've taken a lot out of him emotionally to come down after a win that saw him get really pumped up and celebrate at the end. As for Allen, he's quietly gone about his business this week and played solid stuff under the radar against Brecel, Grace and Davis and I think he has plenty left in the tank to come out and finish this tournament off. His verdict on Twitter summed it up really with the tough conditions in Shanghai by saying that while it might not look pretty, a wins a win and if he can get two more he won't care how it looked. Once you realise that, it shows you won't be too fazed by things going wrong, as long as you can plug away and hang on in there and take advantage of your opponents errors. Particularly in a match over 11 frames, you know you're going to get chances it's just about making the most of them. I fancy Allen to edge this one 6-4.
It's going to be a thrilling weekend to end what's been a good week of snooker with plenty of good matches and close finishes, and if you can take the slightly lower standard with conditions and the fact that it's still so early in the season, then i'm sure you'll enjoy what you see over the coming days.
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