Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump will meet in the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters on Saturday, completing a superb line-up in the final four of the invitational event.
It is an all-English affair in the last four, with Mark Selby taking on Shaun Murphy in the first semi-final on Friday over the best-of-19 frames.
Local hopes were dashed by the four semi-finalists as the quartet of beaten quarter-finalists were all Chinese stars.
O’Sullivan downed Ding Junhui 6-3, Trump beat Si Jiahui 6-2, Selby got the better of Pang Junxu 6-3 and Murphy ousted Zhou Yuelong 6-2.
They were all pretty comfortable wins for the Englishmen, but they all now face sterner tests over a longer distance in the semis.
The Rocket remains the favourite to lift the trophy on Sunday as he extended his incredible winning run in the Shanghai Masters to 21 matches.
O’Sullivan has won the last four editions of the event and lifted the trophy five times in total, with Trump aiming to be the first player to beat him in Shanghai since Michael Holt managed it in 2016.
The head-to-head between O’Sullivan and Trump stands at 18-15 in the Rocket’s favour, in all competitions, which is very level compared to many records between the seven-time world champion and his rivals.
However, O’Sullivan has dominated their recent meetings, winning each of the last five matches they have played, with Trump’s last victory coming back in December 2020 at the World Grand Prix.
The world number five was not at his unstoppable best against Ding, with the match looking in the balance at 3-3, but he powered to victory from there with breaks of 131, 70 and 62.
Murphy was the first man through to the semis with a pretty dominant win over Zhou, making breaks of 57, 70, 66, 61 and 69 along the way and continuing the good form which saw him down John Higgins in the previous round.
‘Delighted to win and get through to the semis, because I really rate Zhou Yuelong,’ Murphy said on Instagram. ‘He’s one of the players from China who’s got a great career ahead of him.
‘I knew I had to play well today and thankfully I managed to keep the form rolling and ended up playing alright.’
Selby leads Murphy 24-19 in all competitions on their head-to-head, but it is the Magician who has the better recent memories, getting the better of the Jester in their two most recent contests.
‘I feel like I’m one positional shot away every time, one bit of cue ball control from really scoring heavily,’ said Murphy. ‘I’ve not had any centuries yet in the 12 frames that I’ve won in the Shanghai Masters at the moment, I just keep making 60s, 70s and 80s and I suppose that’s good enough
‘But I think I’ll need a bit more than that to get past my next opponent, up againstmy good mate Mark Selby. We’ve had so many good matches over the years. Best of 19 semi-final out here, centre stage, it’s not going to be one to miss.’
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