2015 World Grand Prix - The quarter-finals

The quarter-finals of this year's World Grand Prix have just come to an end and we are in possession of the names of the four lucky semi-finalists that will cross their cues this Saturday: Stuart Bingham, Martin Gould, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Judd Trump.

After a free day (for I don't know if you noticed but we didn't have any snooker on Thursday), the lads re-entered into the arena for some very important matches and, it’s needless to say, that tension was floating into the air.

First stop: Stuart Bingham and Mark Davis (or for us friends, Dark Mavis). A match that so many of us would have seen as being more balanced. However, Stuart had other plans in mind and won by an excruciating 4-0 scoreline.

Right from the beginning this match proved to have drama written all over it as Stuart won a scrappy opener on the black, only to show a bit more fluency (under the form of breaks like 56 and 42) and get one more frame under his belt.

Still, the scrappiness returned in frame three that Bingham won with just a top break of 29 to which he added a decisive 71 in the following frame in order to book his place in the semis.

His opponent will be none other than the Rocket, Ronnie O'Sullivan, the five-time world champion defeating Graeme Dott by 4-1.

Although far from his best and describing his performance as "diabolical" O'Sullivan was the first to test the waters and win the opening frame, but lost the following one after inexplicably missing a red.

A break of 58 was assuring him of a 2-1 lead, while a dramatic 4^th frame was starting.

The real turning-point of the match was when the lads were on a draw, 51-51 with only the green, brown, blue, pink and black on the table.

Ronnie potted the green, but couldn't continue his break, Graeme potted the brown, but missed the blue. In the end Ronnie potted blue and pink for a 3-1 lead to which he added a 51 break in frame five for a guaranteed place into the next round.

Martin Gould faced "The Vegan Power" Peter Ebdon in a match that ended in the favour of the “Pinner Potter”, 4-2.

Although Ebdon was the first one in and took the opening frame with a great 80 break (I had plenty of time to make a salad and eat it + clean the plate during this frame), Martin was sure to take his chances and won no less than three frames in a row with runs of 78, 62 and 59.

Peter 's 52 break was keeping the match alive, but Gouldy was aiming for a spot in the semis so with runs of 35 and 23 he beat the "Ebbominator" by 4-2.

Late in the night the likes of Mark Williams and Judd Trump delighted us with a match that saw all its frames being played. And because a late decider is not enough, the match was also won on the last black .... by Trump.

Williams' break of 63 was the one that opened the scoreline, but Trump answered with a 73 to draw level and missed a huge chance to take control of the match when missing a pink during frame three.

However, he did make amends pretty quickly and with a bit of help from breaks of 40 and 52 he drew level at 2-2, but also got in the lead after a top break of 48.

As always, Williams forced the decider after a cracking 6^th frame, decider that had all the right ingredients for a new manicure in my case!

After some pretty unimpressive breaks, but some safety shots that were to die for, it all came down to the colours: blue, pink and black.

Snookers, safety shots and an attempt to double the blue! Unfortunately for Williams the double failed its purpose and left the blue pottable, Trump coming to the table and clearing for victory. Punch in the air and all that!

So there’s no surprise that after quite a mad day of snooker we are ready for some more madness!
Without any further ado here's Saturday's order of play:

1pm
Martin Gould v. Judd Trump

7pm
Stuart Bingham v. Ronnie O'Sullivan

*all hours are UK time