2015 Masters - Murphy works his magic for final spot

Last of the semi-finals of this year's Dafabet Masters took place tonight with a packed audience at Alexandra Palace from London and we were, once again, spoiled with some great snooker.

Shaun Murphy, although experiencing a poor start, defeated Mark Allen by a tremendous 6-2 scoreline to set the final meeting with Neil Robertson.

It's been a great few days here at Ally Pally, but as we are getting closer and closer to the finish line, every match seems more important and more dramatic than the other.

Today's semi-final (which was refereed by the Romanian Alex Crișan) started with an early mistake from the Smurf and a missed black, to which Allen replied with a great 83 and a 62 to practically fly at 2-0 up.

And when Shaun lost position on a 27 break, down on frame three after trying to go into the bunch, all odds were pointing towards Mark to extend his lead. But just after 17 points he missed a blue, due to a kick, which proved to be a real turning-point in the match.

This was Murphy's first real chance to capitalise and a break of 42 was helping him get the most-wanted first frame. Of course that the following 80 break from frame four, wasn't bad at all, the lads starting their mid-session interval all square at 2-2.

As soon as the match re-started, Murphy got in amongst the balls, a brilliant 83 break putting him in the leading chair for the first time since the beginning of the match, while breaks of 76 and 102 (his 326^th century break) were taking him just one away from victory, at 5-2.

Frame eight made its debut with Allen's first pot after no less than 46 minutes, but sadly enough that gap of activity had consequences and he just managed to make a 16 break.

Murphy returned to the table for a 60 break and although kept the audience in suspense after potting the cue ball by mistake, he ended with a 6-2 final scoreline.

A tremendous display of snooker was coming to an end, while the players hugged sincerely and congratulate one another in the true spirit of sportsmanship.

So, this is it: the final is just a few hours away, Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy re-enacting the 2012 Masters final where the last mentioned player lost by 10-6. Revenge in order?