China Open 2011 - the quarter-finals (part I)

The youngster Trump ready for the semi-final

The first two matches being over, we now have one semi-final line up complete, as Judd trump beat Peter Ebdon 5-1 and John Higgins was defeated by Shaun "The Magician" Murphy 5-2. Great matches, great names, great snooker!


Judd Trump, the youngster that has had such a tremendous run here in the China Open, hammered his opponent, Peter Ebdon 5-1, after a high quality match.
Four frames on a row were being won by the Juddernaut (as Dave Hendon calls him), with breaks of 130, 52, 60 and 61 setting the score at 4-0 minutes before the mid-session interval was kicking in. After that break, Ebdon seemed to be quite determined to make a comeback, but sadly for him, he only cashed one frame with two beautiful breaks of 54, the next one being won by Trump with a top break of 50.
It’s true that after Ebdon won that frame, Trump seemed to be struggling a bit, but he put himself together very quickly as to earn his semi-final spot. Great performance!

Shaun Murphy beats the current number one

A classical clash between John Higgins and Shaun Murphy was revealing itself in front of our eyes and it was a wonderful battle of cues, by all means.
The boys shared frames, entering the mid-session interval all square at 2-2, the Scotsman taking over the first and forth frame with a top break of 61, while the Englishman won the second and third frame, with runs of 53 and 78.
However, after the break, Higgins wasn’t able to keep up with Murphy’s style of hitting the ball, "The Wizard of Wishaw" committing various mistakes that have cost him many frames and the match, for that matter. A clean break of 108 was giving Murphy the 5th frame of the match and putting him in the lead, just after Higgins missed the black of his spot.

John Higgins: "Oh Lordy, this is not good!"

The 3-2 scoreline was soon going to chance into 4-2, as the Smurf hit a 54, the next frame being a crucial one for his opponent. Unfortunately for Higgins, he only succeeded in hitting a 17 break as he missed the black, Murphy coming to the table for an 81 that meant a place into tomorrow’s semi-final.
It’s a fact that the Scotsman didn’t play as good as he uses to, Murphy being left with plenty of occasions to "steal" one frame after another. The Englishman was, without any doubt, the one who dominated this match and the victory was the best reward he could get for playing like that.


The next two matches are:


From 12:30 (UK time)


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