Selby will now play Neil Robertson who came through an exciting deciding frame finish against International champion John Higgins. John started with a century but Robertson made a century of his own and a break of 71 along with two other 50+ breaks to take a 4-1 lead. John hit back with a 69 and his second century to close in at 3-4. Neil edged one away at 5-3 but another 134 from Higgins and a 66 break forced the decider. Both guys missed key balls but it was Neil that made the early running in the decider and a missed green from the Scot cost him a chance at one of his "classic" clearances, as the Australian goes through to his third meeting in four years against Selby at the UK Championship.
Liang Wenbo also came through a final frame in his match against Marco Fu to put himself into the last four. Wenbo was on fire early on starting the match with three magnificent century breaks to lead 3-0 and it looked like it could be four centuries on the trot before he missed on 49 and Fu cleared with 64 to get his first frame on the board. Marco also took the first frame after the break but Liang was soon back on top and a run of 67 helped him to go one away and seemingly cruising to victory at 5-2. Liang had chances to get over the line in frames eight and nine, but Marco stayed strong to win three on the trot and make it 5-5. Liang had the best chances of the decider and a magnificent long pot gave him the opportunity needed to finally cross the line and make the semi-finals.
The final match to finish on the day was by far the best as David Grace came from 5-1 behind to beat Martin Gould 6-5. Gould was on fire in the match making two centuries on the way to securing such a commanding lead in the match and it very much looked like Dave's run would be over. Grace cleared to win on the black in the next, before an in-off in frame eight on the brown cost Gould his chance at the match. He had plenty of other chances thereafter but could not put anything substantial together. The decider was the most amazing phase of the match as David put a 61 point lead together and only needed one of the remaining five reds to win the match but he missed a pretty straightforward shot and let Martin back into it. He then made 30 but failed to get on the final red but did collect 28 points in fouls after a couple of difficult snookers Grace couldn't get out of. Eventually it was Martin who potted the final red but missed the black to the middle and David cleared the five colours he needed to clinch a superb comeback victory.
Quarter-Final Results:
David Grace 6-5 Martin Gould
Liang Wenbo 6-5 Marco Fu
Neil Robertson 6-5 John Higgins
Mark Selby 6-1 Matt Selt
Semi-Finals Preview
Liang Wenbo Vs David Grace - Quite simply the biggest game of both players lives. Wenbo is aiming for his second major final, and first in the UK while Grace had never made a ranking quarter final before this week. For Liang Wenbo it also comes as a chance to get himself in the top 16 for the Masters and knock Michael White out of 16th position with the £70,000 he would be guaranteed for making the final. As for David Grace he has already massively boosted his chances of saving his tour spot, which before the UK Championships looked pretty bleak. Another win here would guarantee his safety. Liang Wenbo has had arguably the toughest draw and has already come through some real nail biters. Against Judd Trump he came from 4-1 down with five frames in a row to win 6-4, before winning three in a row from 5-3 down against Tom Ford. Today against Marco Fu he was in sensational form starting with three consecutive centuries, but after he missed on 49 in the fourth things began to go backwards and even though he consolidated from 3-2 to lead 5-2 he lost the next three but somehow held his nerve once again. You cannot question the bottle of either of these players, but in terms of putting themselves into the winning position tomorrow you have to say that Liang has been scoring much the better of the two players and will certainly go out as the favourite tomorrow. With some of the displays we've seen from Liang i'm starting to think that this is his week.Prediction: Wenbo to end Grace's dream 6-3.
Mark Selby Vs Neil Robertson - This is the one we have all been waiting for. Another potentially classic meeting between Mark Selby and Neil Robertson. These two players met in the quarter-finals of the 2012 UK Championship and what happened there with Robertson crumbling to a 6-4 defeat from 4-0 up, and then at the Masters just a month later as Selby recovered from a past midnight finish against Graeme Dott, got a few red bulls in him and went on to thrash Robertson really 10-6, shaped a new Neil. He came back a lot stronger and showed his metal by beating Selby to land the 2013 UK title, as well as also beating him in the World Open quarter-finals, the China Open final and the Australian Open semi-finals in the lead up to that. They've not met as much since then with Selby grabbing their last two major meetings in the 2014 World Championship semi-final, and more recently in the quarter-finals of this years International Championship. Neil Robertson Vs Mark Selby is probably my favourite fixture in modern snooker especially when they're both in the form of this week. Robertson has been flying and scoring for fun against the top players Maguire and Higgins particularly. Selby has been scoring pretty well at times, but has also taken advantage of his opponents mistakes when he's had to and been in grinding mode at times. The thing with these two is that you always fancy Neil Robertson as the favourite, but there is just something about Selby that is able to get these results. Many would have expected him to win the 2012 UK quarter final, 2013 Masters final and 2014 world semi-final but he managed to win neither of those and I simply think that is because Neil can get caught up with playing the player some times. It seems like he gets caught into Selby's game plan to grind him down and Mark knows deep down that he can beat him this way. The only worry for Mark is whether he can take his chances but he has been going pretty well on that front this week and if he can stop Robertson from having his trademark long pots then he has a chance.
Prediction: Selby to edge a late night thriller 6-5.
A cracking line-up is left for the semi-finals, with Selby and Robertson the particular highlight on Saturday evening (possibly what Saturday nights were made for) while Liang Wenbo and David Grace are battling for the right to make it through to have a crack at winning their first ever ranking event knowing that they will be playing a former UK champion if they are to do so. It remains best-of-11 for the semi-finals and I will be back for more to preview the best-of-19 frames final which is to come over two sessions on Sunday with my usual correct score prediction.
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