International Championship - Day 5

Judd Trump is through to the semi-finals after defeating Mark
Allen 6-5

Judd Trump progressed to the semi-finals of the International Championship after a thrilling match saw him beat Mark Allen 6-5. The match was a repeat of last year’s UK Championship final which Trump won 10-8 and this quarter final began just as close with the opening four frames being shared. Trump moved into a 4-2 lead although this was pegged back by the Northern Irishman with a terrific 121 break. However the Bristolian went within a frame of victory by winning the eighth but Allen’s never say die attitude saw him pull it back to 5-5 to force a decider. After making a break of 60, Trump was allowed another chance in the balls and rounded off the victory.

He will face Peter Ebdon tomorrow after he whitewashed Ricky Walden 6-0 in the afternoon’s other quarter-final. In fairness, Walden was probably not in an ideal state to be playing after finishing his 6-3 victory over Mark Selby at 1:30am the morning before.

14-year-old Lu Haotian was hoping to add another big name to the list of players he’d defeated at the International Championship but the world number eight ran out a 6-2 winner. Lu did hold his own in the opening stages though and he led 2-1 at one point and had the chance to go 3-1 up at the interval but Robertson came back from three snookers required to level the frame scores. The Aussie turned up the pressure after the interval winning frame five and won closely-fought frames six and seven which both went down to the final black. The 30-year-old secured a fifth frame on the bounce to seal the victory.

Shaun Murphy will be his opponent in Saturday’s semi-final after he defeated Marco Fu 6-4. It was a fairly even start to the match and Fu would have been delighted to lead 3-1 at the interval but Murphy won four frames on the bounce after the interval to lead 5-2. His Hong Kong opponent fought back to win the next two frames but Murphy secured a last four spot be winning frame 10.