Thepchaiya, Gilbert, Selby and Higgins are final quartet at the International

Thephchaiya Un-Nooh, David Gilbert, Mark Selby and John Higgins are the final four at the International Championships in Daqing after winning their quarter-final matches today. The Thai Un-Nooh was the first man through today when he overcame Mark Allen by winning his fourth decider out of four this week and fifth of the event in total, meaning every match he has played has gone to a eleventh and final frame. The Thai wasn't quite as his big scoring best today and both players were offered up plenty of chances in the match, when a break of 66 put Un-Nooh 4-2 ahead you thought it might end up being his day. That was until Allen won a key eighth frame that you thought might be key when he levelled the match at 4-4. Thepchaiya hit back straight away with a run of 99 to lead 5-4, but a 118 from Allen forced yet another decider for Thepchaiya this week. Once again he dominated that decider and now marches on into his second full ranking event semi-final of 2015, but certainly the biggest match of his career.

His opponent will be David Gilbert, who himself came through a deciding frame by seeing off Marco Fu. It was Marco that had the best running in the early stages, taking a 3-1 mid-session advantage with runs of 66 and 72 helping him on his way. Gilbert hit back after the interval with 74 to peg him back to 2-3, but Fu went two in front again thanks to an 89. A mammoth eighth frame looked key though as in the other quarter-final of the first session, as Gilbert took it to draw level at 4-4. He kicked on from there with a massive break of 130 to go 5-4 up, but a run of 78 from Fu made sure there was one last frame. Marco did have a run of 57 but it wasn't enough to get him over the line, and a 37 clearance from Gilbert (arguably the biggest of his career) gave him the match and now a massive opportunity in the last four.

Meanwhile in the second session of the day, Mark Selby took on Neil Robertson in what looked like being a great clash, and it didn't disappoint either. Selby started the match by laying out his intentions with a 100 break. The match was level at 2-2 at the interval and looked like going to the wire. However, Selby started to take control as runs of 52 and 75 put him 4-2 ahead. Two tight tactical frames followed, but the clearance Selby made in frame eight was the big one to put him 5-3 ahead. Neil waded in with a brilliant 127 to keep himself in the match but Selby then dominated the tenth frame to put the match to bed and march into the semi-finals.

Selby will now play John Higgins who coming into his match with Joe Perry off the back of a whitewash against Shaun Murphy and a 5 frames in a row from 3-1 down to beat Michael Holt. John then raced into a 4-0 mid-session interval with a 106 break on the way to make it 15 frames in a row at that stage. Twitter the erupted and that clearly cursed John as he lost the next two frames to go 2-4. A break of 69 steadied the ship for Higgins to lead 5-2 but again Perry came back and it came down to a battle on the pink at 3-5 and John potted an amazing pink and followed with the black to win 6-3.

Quarter-Final Results:

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 6-5 Mark Allen
David Gilbert 6-5 Marco Fu
Mark Selby 6-4 Neil Robertson
John Higgins 6-3 Joe Perry

Semi-Finals Preview:

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh Vs David Gilbert - The first semi-final over the best-of-17 frames tomorrow is going to be an amazing contest between two of the better players from down the rankings and they are both very good to watch. This is a massive opportunity for both players for a number of reasons. If the winner of the match then went on to win the final too, they would get into the top 16 for the first time and have a great chance of putting themselves in the Masters with only a few events to go before the seedings cut off for that event. They would also put themselves into the Champion of Champions in mid-November. Both players should make it into the World Grand Prix now, with minimum prize money of £30,000 for the loser of this semi-final. Both players have done it the hard way to get to this stage after their four games at the venue this week. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh has come through four deciders against Ross Muir, Mark Williams, Zhou Yuelong and Mark Allen but also scoring brilliantly at the same time. David Gilbert has come through two deciders of his own against Xiao Guodong and Marco Fu, while his 6-4 wins against Oli Lines and Ryan Day were far from simple. Both of these guys have been fantastic this week and scoring magnificently and finally starting to show off the class that I knew was hiding in their somehow but we've really only seen glimpses of this until recently. Thepchaiya won the 6 Reds in September, but in terms of ranking performances he also made the Indian Open semi-finals losing out from a winning position against Ricky Walden. David Gilbert also had his chances in the recent Ruhr Open European Tour event where he made the semi-finals and lost narrowly also to Tian Pengfei. So, both players have had a taste of this before but with so much money at stake you have to wonder how they will cope in the biggest match of their lives. Trying to pick a winner is going to be tough, especially as Un-Nooh has been quite streaky, while Gilbert to me has been more solid and has the stronger safety game of the two.

Prediction: Tight 9-8 win for David Gilbert

Mark Selby Vs John Higgins - Saturday's semi-final between Mark Selby and John Higgins is set up brilliantly after all of the classic encounters the two have had down the years. Both are brilliantly tactical players and are on top form this week so this is another very tough call. With no dis-respect to either Gilbert or Un-Nooh but somewhere in the back of their minds they must be thinking that if they can get through this, they have a magnificent chance of winning the title. John has been on excellent form this week dispatching of Murphy on the way and at one stage he had won 15 frames on the spin. If he can keep that up he's going to take some stopping but if one man can, it is Mark Selby. I expect this to be a highly tactical affair, just because of how tough it is to break either player down in the safety department. Mark has been grinding his opponents down very well, and even though Neil Robertson had been scoring well all week, he didn't have the same open chances to go after against Selby and the same might be the case for Higgins who has been scoring with ease all week, and that is most likely a product of the two ranking events he has already won in 2015. If Selby can take his chances and keep his safety tight then he has a chance of taming the beast that John has been so far in Daqing, and at the same time he will just remind everyone why he is the best player in the world right now and enhance that world number 1 ranking.

Prediction: Another close game, and a 9-7 victory for Selby.


I think these are going to be two fantastic semi-finals for two really different. With Un-Nooh and Gilbert tomorrow we have a massive opportunity for both players and one will reach a full ranking final for the first time and have an opportunity to win the £125,000 top prize. Meanwhile, Mark Selby and John Higgins are hugely experienced and have been here many times before, and they are two of the hardest match players in the game. I'll be back on Saturday with a preview of the final of the International Championships and I've got a feeling there will be two very closely fought semi-finals to report on.