Reigning champion Ronnie O’Sullivan breezed into the World Championship semifinals with a session to spare on Wednesday after completing a 13-3 win over Shaun Murphy.
Murphy made a strong start to their quarterfinals by winning the first two frames, but O’Sullivan roared back and won the next six frames to establish a 6-2 overnight lead.
The five-time champion stretched his advantage to 8-2 on Wednesday morning before the 2005 champion Murphy clawed a frame back, but a break of 118 gave O’Sullivan a 9-3 advantage at the mid-session break.
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After a short delay due to a technical problem with the scoreboard, O’Sullivan capitalised on a couple of routine misses by Murphy to close out victory.
Earlier, Mark Selby finished off a one-sided 13-5 win over Alan McManus to book his place in the last four.
Leading 12-4 overnight, the Leicester cueist needed only one frame to complete victory, but Scottish veteran McManus took the day’s first frame thanks to a break of 69.
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It proved only a stay of execution, however, and when McManus could not exploit his opportunities in the next frame, Selby pounced to set up a last-four meeting with either Judd Trump or Neil Robertson.
“I think it was four years ago since I was in the semi-final before, so it seems like forever with so many tournaments now during the season,” said Selby. “I’m looking forward to it and can’t wait to get out there.”
Quarterfinal results: Mark Selby (ENG) bt Alan McManus (SCO) 13-5; Ronnie O’Sullivan (ENG) bt Shaun Murphy (ENG) 13-3.