O’Sullivan And Robertson Into Last Four

Snooker’s big guns continued to thrive at the European Masters in Romania as Ronnie O’Sullivan and Neil Robertson set up a semi-final meeting.

Judd Trump and Mark Selby will contest the other semi in what promises to be a fascinating concluding weekend at the new world ranking event in Bucharest.

O’Sullivan scored a 4-1 win over Mark Davis to extend his best run since he won the Welsh open in February. Breaks of 33 and 54 gave him the opening frame then he nicked a scrappy second by clearing from last red to pink.

Davis pulled one back with a run of 124, but O’Sullivan soon made it 3-1 then finished superbly with a 129, his first century of the season.

“Mark is a really tough and consistent player so I had to be on my game to win,” said O’Sullivan. “I started off well then he came back at me and played some good safety, I got a bit lucky as the balls didn’t fall kindly for him and I had to take advantage. I was pleased with my mental performance. These are the type of matches I need to test myself.”

Robertson saw off Anthony McGill 4-2 in a gruelling battle which lasted two hours and 51 minutes. Australia’s Robertson took the opening frame with a break of 61 before Scotland’s McGill levelled in a 44-minute second.

A colours clearance in the third saw Robertson regain the lead then McGill made runs of 56 and 37 for 2-2. Robertosn potted brown, blue and pink to win the fifth, and took the next on the colours as well to boost his hopes of a second ranking title of the season having won the Riga Masters.

“The table played tough, there has been a lot of rain today so conditions weren’t easy,” said Robertson. “Anthony played a lot of good safety so it was just a match to get through. The tables will have a new cloth tomorrow so hopefully it will be a better standard. It will be a different match against Ronnie anyway. If I take my chances I can beat him.”