Judd Trump and Shaun Murphy played out an epic quarter-final contest as the race for the 2018 Masters heats up in London.
Trump ends on a high
Number three seed Trump made an excellent start as breaks of 57 and 60 gave him a 2-0 lead, despite Murphy formulating a 52 in the second frame. The pair then traded the next four frames as Trumped racked up another two half-centuries but failed to take the game away from his opponent.
However, Murphy struck back as breaks of 95 and 59 drew him level at 4-4 as the race for a semi-final place reached tipping point. Yet Trump delved into his energy reserves to formulate contributions of 111 and 113 to win 6-4.
Wilson and Higgins cruise through
Trump will now prepare to face Kyren Wilson in the semi-finals as the lowest ranked player left in the competition eased past Mark Williams despite only making two breaks over 50. Wilson won five consecutive frames but only passed the milestone in frame five when he made 63. Williams earned a consolation but a match-high break fo 76 gave Wilson a comfortable 6-1 victory.
The same result had already been recorded by Mark Allen as he dumped defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan out of the competition. Allen's reward for an inspiring display is a semi-final meeting with John Higgins as he matched the 6-1 scoreline against Ryan Day.
The pair shared the opening frames with Day recording a break of 83 in the second. Yet that was as good as it got for the Welshman as he scored just 35 points in the rest of the match and 20 of those came in frame three. Higgins dominated the table with contributions of 61, 63, 65, 113 and 80 to give him plenty of momentum going into his clash with Allen who is also enjoying a spell of excellent form.