Ronnie O'Sullivan, Marco Fu, Shaun Murphy and Mark Selby will play out the UK Championship semi-finals in York after victories of varying difficulty in yesterday's quarter-finals.
Ronnie O'Sullivan eased through in the evening despite not playing his best against an under performing Mark Williams. Williams certainly had his chances on the night but the common theme was that he could not punish O'Sullivan as the Rocket landed a 6-2 win. The high break of 78 from O'Sullivan came in the seventh frame to move him 5-2 up.
He will now play Marco Fu in the quarter-finals after Fu fought back from 5-2 down to beat another Welshman Jamie Jones 6-5. Jones played very well to take his 5-2 lead, and having already seen off Ding Junhui and David Gilbert 6-2 this week many would have thought that Jones was going to continue his run.
His best chances came in frame nine, but when Fu took that frame the tide had certainly turned and the highest break in the match of 75 came from Fu to force the decider. Jones missed a few chances from range in the decider, leaving Fu in each time and eventually he was punished as Fu recorded victory.
In the afternoon session Shaun Murphy cruised to a 6-1 win over Belgium's Luca Brecel who simply did not turn up with the game that saw him beat Murphy 4-0 in the Irish Open a couple of weeks ago. A 77% pot success from Brecel was never going to get him close against Murphy, who made high breaks of 112 and 88 in the win.
The match of the round between Mark Selby and John Higgins certainly lived up to its prior billing as Selby managed to edge out John Higgins 6-5. Higgins was not firing early on and Selby took advantage with breaks of 119, 63 and 67 to take a quick 3-0 lead. A close frame before the interval went to Higgins and kept him in it and from there he started to fire. The next two frames after the break fell his way too, levelling the match at 3-3.
Then the Scotsman took the lead for the first time with a magnificent century. Selby soon hit back to square things again, but it was Higgins who went one up with two to play with a 75 break for 5-4. 63 from Selby forced the decider, which got off to a very scrappy start. Selby had the early advantage but Higgins was soon clawing his way into it but a couple of tough misses with the rest let him down and eventually it was a missed cutback green that cost him as Selby clinched the 6-5 win and will now play Murphy in the semi-finals.
Semi-Final Schedule:
Saturday 3rd December 1pm:
Mark Selby Vs Shaun Murphy
Saturday 3rd December 7pm:
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Marco Fu
Surprisingly for two guys who have met a lot over the course of their careers, this will be the first time Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy have met since the classic German Masters final of 2015 which went to Selby. Murphy has had his fair share of victories in their most recent meetings too, winning 6-5 in the first round of the 2015 Masters on the way to winning that tournament, and beating Selby in their most major meeting before that at the 2014 World Open final.
This week both players have had to grind out victories at times, with Murphy struggling more in the first couple of rounds before having two easy victories against Zhou Yuelong and Luca Brecel. Selby's game against Wells in the Last 64 could have gone either way, but he followed that up with a couple of comfortable victories before a very difficult and mentally taxing victory against John Higgins yesterday. Both players will be battle hardened by tight matches at points in the tournament, but Mark Selby was the man with all of the form coming into this week, and he will have greater confidence because of that.
In the second semi-final most people will look at that and think that O'Sullivan will have yet another easy game. He has only dropped five frames to this point as no-one has stood up and given him a challenge, and it will be interesting to see how he reacts if Fu can get off to a good start. However, Fu has not convinced me with his form this week and had suffered very poor results all season before coming to York.
Along with that, Fu has not beaten O'Sullivan since the 2009 Welsh Open, and lost their last two meetings 6-1 at the 2015 Masters and 6-0 at the 2014 Champion of Champions. O'Sullivan has not necessarily had to play out of his skin to reach this stage, but he won't have to here either unless Fu improves. The man from Hong Kong has been battle hardened by coming back against Jamie Jones and surviving a scare against Mei Xi Wen earlier in the tournament. That mixed with a couple of 6-0 wins might give him more confidence ahead of such a big match.
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