2015 World Championship (Day 9) - O'Sullivan & Murphy knock on QFs door

A week (and a day) ago "The Crucible madness" kicked off and we were so happy. Now the tournament is in full progress and we are over the moon with the display of snooker and weird stuff (if you read the blog then you know what I'm referring at).

As many of you know Sunday is one of those days, where no-one is declared a winner. Although, in all honestly there were times when I thought we shan't see another session on Monday especially in the cases of Ronnie O'Sullivan and Shaun Murphy.

Ronnie took on a pretty revived Matthew Stevens, but despite the Welshman strong start, the Rocket still closed the first session at 5-3.

Things didn't seem too different on Sunday either as Ron took the first two frames with a top break of 62 before his opponent could respond with a 55 clearance and pull back a frame to trail 7-4.

Still, by the mid-session interval the five-time world champion had hit one of those special century breaks (110) to restore the four-frames gap and continued with another brilliant 139 after the 15-minutes-of-whatever-the-players-do-backstage-when-noone-is-watching-them.

Runs of 29 and 31 were winning O'Sullivan the 14^th frame, while the following on was clinched with a 42 clearance on the black. And since we were here, add a 61 and go see the scoreline: 12-4! 

One more frame needed for the Rocket to reach the quarter-finals where Stuart Bingham awaits impatiently.

Oh, and I must not forget the "can-can" part of this story: Ronnie was warn by referee Olivier Marteel for having a ungentlemanly behaviour (which basically translated into rubbing his cue up and down).

Shaun Murphy proved to be in quite a fighting form (not that is a shock for anyone) and after leading poor Joe Perry 7-1, went on all the way to 12-4 at the end of their second session.

Dressed in a Burgundy red outfit and with his waistcoat's back in a gold shade (made me remember Iron Man), Murphy captured the first three frames with breaks of 44, 45, 57 and 50, while a devastated Perry could only miss important balls in crucial moments.

Still, a break of 74 helped him go 10-2 behind just before the interval. Interval which proved to have a good impact on our Gentleman, as Joe got another frame under-board with a beautiful 131 clearance.

Runs of 40 and 88 were carefully added to Murphy's account in order to make the scoreline go 12-3, when Perry fought with all his remaining energy and made a 74 break not just to win the last frame, but also to assure there will still be a session this Monday.

Neil Robertson is not far from a place on the quarter either, as the Australian player holds a pretty powerful 11-5 advantage over Ali Carter.

The players ended their first session with Robertson in the lead at 6-2, but when the match re-started Carter managed to pull back a frame by using a break of 61.

The following ones however were entering Neil's pocket courtesy of breaks of 72, 38 (this one was won on the black), 119 and 71 for a tremendous 11-3 lead!

Missing a lot, but also being followed by the Badluck Gods, Carter still managed to win the last two frames of the session and grant himself the chance to start a comeback on Monday.

Another two green baize gladiators, Judd Trump and Marco Fu ended their second session snooker love affair, with the Bristolian in the leading chair, 10-6.

Their first session ended on 5-3 in favour of Judd and what followed next was a perfect lesson of snooker: when playing Trump, you must kill the frame in one visit. Fu didn't.

Breaks of 34, 40, 40, 35 and 111 were taking Trump 9-3 up, while Fu could only sit in his chair and think about the fact that his contributions (although not too shabby I must say) didn't make any difference.

But as the interval finished off, Fu started to come to life with runs of 33, 32 and 54 in order to reduce his deficit at 9-5.

Judd's 75 break came as a reply, but so did the last frame who entered Fu's bag to close the match at 10-6.

All the above matches will see their conclusion in a few hours time, as it follows:

1pm
Joe Perry v. Shaun Murphy (4-12)
Marco Fu v. Judd Trump (6-10)

7pm
Ali Carter v. Neil Robertson (5-11)
Matthew Stevens v. Ronnie O'Sullivan (4-12)

* all hours are UK time