Masters Day 5

Neil Robertson squeezed his way through to the semi-finals
after winning a final frame decider over Mark Allen in
dramatic fashion.

Masters defending champion Neil Robertson kept his hopes of defending the title alive by knocking in a miracle shot to defeat Mark Allen in a final frame decider. The match began on close terms with Robertson winning two of the first three frames but Mark Allen improved on his and the tournament’s high break by knocking in a 138 in frame four, beating the previous highest of 136.

The Northern Irishman went ahead for the first time in the match by winning frame five with a break of 72 but Robbo hit back with a 111 break in the next. The Aussie came out on top in a close seventh frame but the match was once again squared up with Allen knocking in a 68 break to take frame eight. Another century break from Robertson, this time a 101, put him 5-4 up but Allen forced a decider by taking frame ten. Allen seemed to have Robertson in trouble in the final frame tucked up behind the yellow with the one free red right over the bottom right corner but an excellently judged escape saw him knock the red in. He went onto make a 105 break to tie up the match to be the first man through to the semis.

He will face Shaun Murphy on Saturday afternoon after he produced an impressive comeback, beating John Higgins after another final frame decider, previously trailing 4-1. And it was the Sale man who kicked off the match in style with an 85 break but Higgins responded by winning the next three to lead 3-1 at the interval.

A 69 break saw the two-time Masters Champion extend his lead to 4-1 but a 70 break from Murphy in the next stopped the rot and he also took frames seven and eight to square the match up. Higgins edged back in front by winning the ninth but Murphy ensured a sixth decider of the tournament so far by winning the tenth. Higgins had the first guilt-edge chance and seemed to be cruising to victory but missed the blue to middle on 51 allowing Murphy in who kept his cool to knock in 66 and win the match on the final pink.