Mark Selby is through to the semi-finals of the German Masters following a hard-fought win against Ding Junhui this morning, though from the 5-1 scoreline you wouldn’t have known it. Click below to see who will join him…
Quarter-Final Results
Mark Selby 5-1 Ding Junhui
Graeme Dott 5-2 Stephen Maguire
Mark Williams 5-1 Joe Perry
Marco Fu 5-1 Joe Swail
Ding Junhui might have made the brighter start in his quarter-final with Mark Selby by making a fluent break of 118 but from there it was the Jester from Leicester who won a series of close frames to take an important win.
The tone was set in the second frame as with a red over a baulk pocket, Mark was forced to play safe into the pack of reds, starting a safety battle that would see the frame develop into a real war of attrition. For periods at appeared as though Ding was getting on top of the safety exchange but it was Selby who eventually came through to win a crucial frame, one that appeared to knock the wind out of Ding’s sails until the mid-session interval.
That said, the third frame was another close affair which saw Ding come close to completing a tidy clearance before eventually choosing to play safe on a difficult yellow. This looked like it was the right decision as Selby failed to get it safe, but Ding could not take his opportunity with the rest and Mark cleared for 2-1. From there Mark went from strength to strength and eventually finished with a pot success of 96%, while Ding could not quite take his opportunities.
Next up for Mark will be Graeme Dott who hit a break of 140 on his way to a 5-2 victory against Stephen Maguire. Again it was his opponent who made the brighter start with a break of 130 in the opening frame but Graeme then hit back with four in a row to leave himself on the brink of victory before taking it in the seventh.
In the bottom half, Mark Williams also recovered from seeing his opponent Joe Perry making a century break in the opening frame, winning the next five with a top run of 122 to keep his run going. He will face Marco Fu this evening following the Masters finalist’s 5-1 victory against Joe Swail, who can nevertheless be very happy with his performances this week.
Who wins it from here?