China Open - Day 5

Peter Ebdon defated Neil Robertson in a scrappy affair to reach
the semi-finals

Peter Ebdon secured his place in the semi-finals of the China Open by defeating Neil Robertson who was not firing on all cylinders in an epic match that lasted almost four hours. Neither player played particularly well in the match with many errors and missed shots littering the eight frames that were played which saw Ebdon win 5-3. It was 2-2 at the interval before Robertson took the fifth frame. However, Ebdon won the next three despite Robertson wasting a chance to make it 4-4, and into the semi-finals of a ranking event since September 2010’s World Open.

The afternoon session also saw local hero Ding Junhui beat Ali Carter by 5 frames to 2. Carter, who has not played a great deal of snooker in recent weeks due to his illness, did not play particularly poorly but Ding was fully deserving of the 5-2 win. The Chinese player will be hoping to win two competitions in two weeks, after winning the Championship League last Thursday, if he can reach the final by defeating Ebdon tomorrow evening.

Earlier in the day, Stephen Maguire defeated Ronnie O’Sullivan in a dramatic match which was won on a re-spotted black in the deciding frame. Maguire took the first two frames but The Rocket levelled by taking the next two. The match continued in close fashion with no more than a frame separating the two and despite trailing 4-3 O’Sullivan won the fourth to force a deciding frame. Ronnie was in the balls to begin with but broke down and an incredible fluke from Maguire meant he cleared up to tie with his opponent. A re-spotted black had to decide the match and the Scot took the opportunity to win and progresses to the last four.

Defending champion Judd Trump was knocked out of the competition by Stephen Lee. Lee, who has now reached four out of five semi-finals in the most recent ranking events, trailed 2-0 early on but breaks of 113 and 107 saw him go into the interval level. He won the next four before Trump won the seventh but Lee maintained his steamrollering of opponents by taking the eighth frame to win 5-3. Lee will face Maguire in tomorrow’s afternoon session which begins at 7:30amBST with coverage available on Eurosport.