Haikou World Open 2012 (semi-finals): Big Lee puts Milkman out of business

Stephen Lee gets a place in the final

Stephen Lee beat Robert Milkins 6-2 to book himself a place in tomorrow's Haikou World Open final, where Mark Allen is waiting for him. 

The mighty baize gladiator from Trowbridge ended the first session on a 2-2 scoreline, but found a perfect way to detach himself and kept on cruising until he reached the victory.

The battle of cues made its debut with a very, very scrappy affair, as both players seemed bit nervous. Still, in the end it was Milkins who cashed the opener, with Lee taking the following two frames by firing in breaks of 60, 29 and 35.

Just a few minutes before the mid-session interval was kicking off, the Gloucester man made a tremendous century break of 102 points to draw level at 2-2.

As the battle restarted, Lee used an 85 to regain the leading position and win a very hard fought 6^th frame to go 4-2 up. Robert seemed to have all the chances in the world to level the match as he was building himself a nice and steady break. But his fluency of potting the balls was suddenly stopped at 41 when the blue ball didn't quite reached the intended pocket (aka. the left centre one).

End of run for the "Milkman"

Lee came to the table but 31 points later overcut a red that refused to enter guess where? Into the same left centre pocket. It was a life line for Milkins, but the qualifier didn't succeed to take full advantage of it committing a foul at just 14 points and leaving a free ball on, thus Lee clearing until the black with a 31.

The last two frames were cashed by "The Bulldog" of snooker with runs of 61 and 76, the scoreboard freezing at 6-2, a result that sent Lee straight into the final where Mark Allen is waiting for him.

Tomorrow the lads will cross their cues into the most important battle of cues of the tournament, the first to win 10 frames being declared the champion of the 2012 Haikou World Open edition.
The match is played in two sessions, first one to start from 6.30am and the second from 11.30am (UK time).

TV coverage: