PTC Grand Finals 2012 (Day 4) - Higginson and Robertson complete semis line-up

Higginson books himself a place in the semis

The last two of the remaining semi-finals spots of this year's PTC Grand Finals were booked by Andrew Higginson, who manage to overcome an out-of-form Xiao Guodong, and by Neil Robertson who clearly dominated the match played against Joe Perry enough to put an end of it with a 4-1 scoreline.

Considering the “damage” both Guodong and Higginson did during this edition of the PTC Grand Finals, many of us were expecting to see a pretty close fight with a lot of cracking shots. But the lads had something else in mind, or at least that's what pressure did to them.

China's Xiao Guodong was the first to break the ice after winning the opener due to a fluked pink, but after that his game stopped bringing him points. 
At the same time, Higginson was in no better position missing a lot of shots, but somehow he managed to keep it together and not let go of the winning wish.

End of run for the amazing Guodong

A scrappy affair was leveling the situation at one apiece, while breaks of 40 and 69 were putting the Englishman just one step away from the semi-finals.

During the 5^th frame, Higginson (also winner of the PTC 5 event) missed a ball as he was reaching 36, the Chinese player coming to the table and stunningly starting to pot quite fluently.

It seemed like a revived Guodong, but it all went away once a red was missed, Higginson returning to close the match with a 46 break for a 4-1 scoreline.

"The Thunder from Down Under" was meeting "The Gentleman" of snooker in the last quarter-finals match, a match that had a pretty balance start, but continued with Robertson taking all the glory.

Robertson reaches the semi-final

The Australian player that won the Masters tournament in January made a perfect clearance of 131 points to take the opener, while the Englishman responded with a perfect 100, after his opponent missed a straight blue.

During the 3^rd frame Robertson was going to miss an easy pot again (this time it was a yellow) on 45, but Perry didn’t make the most of it, the 2010 world champion returning for a 22 to regain his leading position.

The last two frames were cashed by Robertson with runs of 59 and 52, so tomorrow we are seeing the Australian taking on Scotland's Stephen Maguire.

Tomorrow's match schedule:

12pm
Stephen Lee v. Andrew Higginson
Stephen Maguire v. Neil Robertson

8pm
Final
*all hours are Ireland time

TV coverage: