Trump On Verge Of Semis
Trump has made four centuries in the match
Judd Trump played some sensational snooker to build a 12-4 lead over Ding Junhui and move within a frame of the Betfred World Championship semi-finals.
Trump won six out of eight frames in both sessions today, to leave China’s Ding needing to win all nine frames in the concluding session at 10am on Wednesday. Otherwise, Bristol’s Trump will go through to the one-table set up at the Crucible for the third time, to meet Ronnie O’Sullivan or Stuart Bingham.
A break of 102 gave Trump the opening frame tonight to put him 7-2 ahead. He took the next with a run of 55 and a scrappy 11th for 9-2. Ding was struggling to stay in touch, though he did win the next two frames with runs of 69 and 51.
Trump won a tight 14th frame on the colours to make it 10-4, then finished the session brilliantly with back to back centuries, 127 and 111.
In a much tighter quarter-final clash, Shaun Murphy is 9-7 up on Anthony McGill, in a match which finishes from 2.30pm on Wednesday, with the winner to meet Neil Robertson or Barry Hawkins.
Glasgow’s McGill, who has already knocked out Stephen Maguire and Mark Selby in his first Crucible appearance, started tonight’s session brilliantly with a 137 total clearance to go 5-4 ahead. The next lasted 45 minutes and Murphy eventually won it on the colours, before McGill regained the lead with a 36 clearance.
Murphy, the 2005 champion, then stepped up a gear and won four in a row with top breaks of 127 and 75. But McGill made an 86 in the last of the night to keep alive his hopes of continuing his brilliant run.
Murphy hasn’t reached the semi-finals since 2009