Shaun Murphy underlined his Shanghai credentials today with an excellent whitewash of the 1997 world champion Ken Doherty, while Liang Wenbo kept alive his chances of a first ranking event title on home soil. Out though is Ding Junhui, who lost to Ronnie O’Sullivan, while reigning world champion John Higgins saw off Ryan Day once again in China…
Also my provisional rankings page is now right up to date and you can access that here.
Quarter Finals
Ricky Walden 3-5 Liang Wenbo
24-72(57), 107(103)-4, 50-55(37), 4-64(59), 39-66(59), 71(55)-9, 122(122)-1, 5-74(37,32)
Shaun Murphy 5-0 Ken Doherty
128(49,75)-6, 85(68)-8, 62(62)-9, 75(53)-26, 128(123)-0
Ronnie O’Sullivan 5-3 Ding Junhui
0-96(38,57), 70(34)-62(58), 97(64,33)-25, 101(101)-16, 75(70)-37, 0-122(61), 0-120(99c), 100(83)-26
Ryan Day 1-5 John Higgins
31-71(36), 56(47)-69, 70-41, 1-74(49), 0-92(92), 37-74(51)
Ricky Walden’s reign as Shanghai Masters champion came to an end today as the in-form Liang Wenbo recorded a 5-3 win and in the process moved himself up to 17th in the latest provisional rankings. With several breaks over 50 between them, including two centuries from Ricky, the match was of a high standard as you would expect from these two places. Having moved 4-1 ahead however, it was Liang who put himself in an excellent position and despite a mini-revival from Ricky, managed to get over the line with a couple of 30+ breaks in the eighth frame.
Sad for Ricky but for Liang the dream continues as he prepares to play the first ranking event semi-final of his career, and where better to do it than in front of the Chinese fans. There he will meet Shaun Murphy who ended the run of Ken Doherty with an ominous performance, notching up a big break in every frame and restricting Ken to the toughest of opportunities. It is good to see that Murphy has not let the disappointment of last season’s World Championship final get to him and it is clear that he will be a force to be reckoned with for the new campaign.
In the bottom half meanwhile comes another meeting between ‘the big two’ in the form of Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins. For Ronnie his progress was far from easy as 2005 China Open champion Ding Junhui pushed him all the way before eventually going down 5-3, while Higgins managed to win a number of close frames to see off Ryan Day as he did in Beijing earlier this year.
Would not like to call a winner still…