The 2014 Masters (the semis) - Selby and Rocket Ronnie in the final

Selby will defend his Masters crown

There have been some crazy, crazy days here at Alexandra Palace and today it all went down to just two players: on one side we have Mark Selby, the defending champion who beat Shaun Murphy 6-1 in the semi-final and on the other side we have the simply surprising Ronnie O'Sullivan who extinguish Maguire's fire with a 6-2 scoreline.

Today's semis have been far from the ones most of us expected to be (aka. tight matches) for it seemed only one of the two players were actually there in the arena potting balls. Weird enough since both Shaun Murphy and Stephen Maguire had a very good run during this year's Masters.

For Murphy though, it was painful because the match made its debut with two cracking breaks of 86 and 104, signed by an outstanding Mark Selby, breaks that left the Smurf speechless ... or should I say potless? Bottom line it wasn't until the third frame that he actually managed to pot a ball.

An out-of-form Murphy talks about retirement

Still, that didn't mean he win it, for Selby was sure to grab it with a break of 50, as well as the following one, this time with a 62.

So, the mid-session interval was finding Selby on top at 4-0. Troubling times for "The Magician"! 

And sadly, his troubles were far from being over as after re-entering the arena the defending champion, although not as sharp as before, carefully managed to add one more frame to his collection.

Finally, after a break of 25 and one hell of a fight, Murphy managed to win a frame and avoid whitewash. 

Rocket Ronnie is in the final

However, everything was ended very soon by a very determined Selby who was eagerly grabbing his place in the final.

Seriously disappointed by his performance, Murphy has even mentioned retirement after the match, leaving his fans and the snooker fans for that matter, in total shock. Hopefully after the frustration wears off, he will reconsider his position.

The second semi-final gathered another two great kings of the green baize: Maguire and O'Sullivan and as before I dared to wish for a more close battle of cues. Unfortunately I wasn't granted the wish.

Maguire's fire was nowhere to be seen tonight

Although Maguire stormed in and opened with a great 98 break, what it followed had nothing in common with it.

Not only did O'Sullivan drew level, but he also put his nose in front with a 73 and continued to climb supported by breaks of 40, 40, 27 and 59, to go just one away from victory.

And if you think that those breaks don't make justice for Ronnie, I must tell you that he was far from the man who beat Ricky Walden the other day and broke the record and far from the player we all know he can be; still he got the best of the match and that says a lot.

Ronnie Jr is supporting his dad

Even if Maguire won the next frame on a dramatically last black, Ronnie put on one of his special century breaks (129) by leaving the last of the balls on the table and went on to win the match, 6-2.

Tomorrow the Rocket will meet the player he refers to as "The Torturer" for what we all hope to be a total and utter cracker.

First session will be broadcasted on the BBC from 1.30pm, while the second one from 7pm.