Snooker

Overnight scores:
Mark Selby 6-2 Marco Fu
Ding Junhui 10-6 Ronnie O'Sullivan
John Higgins 11-5 Kyren Wilson
Barry Hawkins 5-3 Stephen Maguire

Higgins won through comfortably, and then so did Selby.

Good show the other night about 40 years of the Crucible, presented by Steve Davis

146 from ronnie as he goes into break 11-9 down

O'Sullivan is out after a 13-10 defeat to Ding Junhui.
Ding will face defending champion Mark Selby after the Leicester cueman saw off Marco Fu 13-3 with a session to spare. In the other half of the draw John Higgins has beaten Kyren Wilson 13-6 to march into the semi finals.
Higgins now awaits the winner of the Hawkins v Maguire match that concludes this evening.

The Bore has beaten The Misery

Results:
Mark Selby bt Marco Fu 13-3
Ding Junhui bt Ronnie O'Sullivan 13-10
John Higgins bt Kyren Wilson 13-6
Barry Hawkins bt Stephen Maguire 13-9 - Thank goodness. Another minute of Maguire in the tournament I could not have tolerated.

Semi Finals: (Best of 33 frames)
Mark Selby (1) v Ding Junhui (4)
John Higgins (6) v Barry Hawkins (7)

Semi Finals:
Ding Junhui needs a strong start in his semi final against Mark Selby imo. A bad first session may well prove very costly and allow Selby to pull away for a runaway victory. The danger of a slow start is a significant one for Ding.
Part of that is down to Selby's form but part of it is down to the emotional and psychological energy expended in closing out a first victory over Ronnie O'Sullivan in several years. How well Ding has recovered from the emotional come down is important. His shot selection and concentration will face it's ultimate test against Selby whose B game is extremely effective at disrupting any rhythm of opponents.
If Ding can stay with Selby early on and grow into the match he stands a chance. Selby needs to maintain his level and just keep powering on.
His form is excellent and his B game is the best of anyone imo. He is the supreme match player and starts as a clear bookies favourite.

Barry Hawkins is in a similar situation to Ding in that I feel he needs a strong start in his semi final. He faces a very clear danger in my mind of being a way behind early on and not being able to pull it back against another supreme match player in Higgins.
John Higgins' pot success rate in his last 2 rounds has been convincingly over 90% and the quality of his tactical and safety play has never been in any doubt. Hawkins is strong in the shot selection department and seems to be slowly finding a bit of fluency.
Hawkins has an excellent recent Crucible record and he cannot be written off especially if he finds his A game in this match.
However Higgins has demonstrated superb consistency in this Championship so far and rightly goes into the match as favourite to win.

I had a pre tournament bet on a Selby-Higgins final . On the face of it that bet seems a pretty good one.
However Ding or Hawkins or maybe even both could cause upsets.
Unlikely maybe but not impossible.

If it's Ding's year, then he's certainly building the stories; the struggle with Liang, conquering Ronnie, revenge on Selby & so on.

SF1: Mark Selby 3-5 Ding Junhui.
Ding showed great maturity in the opening session of his semi final with Mark Selby. His shot selection that I mentioned earlier was exemplary to the point he was beating Selby at his own game at times. He was clinical in the balls early on to square the first four frames and after losing the next frame to trail 2-3 Ding showed just how much he had learned from last years final.
He won 2 scrappy frames with excellent tactical play to go 4-3 up and then rattled in a 110 break to take a 2 frame cushion into tomorrow. The ability to win scrappy frames will be all important as the match progresses. A very positive start for Ding.

SF2: John Higgins - Barry Hawkins
Barry Hawkins recovered from a horrific start to the semi final against the Wizard of Wishaw. An error strewn display from The Hawk allowed the Scot to charge into a 4-0 lead in clinical fashion.
From there both men made countless errors but Hawkins with runs of 62 and 71 reduced the deficit to 2-4.
He wasted opportunities in frame 7 and Higgins led 5-2. Crucial final frame of the session then. Higgins in first with 38 but stalls.
Could Hawkins respond? Frame winning break chance goes down to the colours.
Tough yellow.......in. Tough green.......in.
A Hawkins run of 74 and he trails only 3-5 overnight.

SF1: Mark Selby 12-12 Ding Junhui
A semi final of the very highest quality. Blow for blow Selby and Ding slugging it out like a couple of snooker gladiators. Safety, potting, breakbuilding, composure you name it these two were producing top quality play frame after frame.
From 3-5 down overnight Selby rattles in a 100 break. 4-5. Two tactical frames of excellent quality both won by Selby. Then a break of 67 and all of a sudden it's 7-5 Selby. Ding returns after the mid session interval with an 84. Selby trumps it with an 85. Booooom Ding responds with a 139 - take that.
But the Leicester man sees out a crucial session ending frame to lead by two once again. So into the evening session and Selby powers in an outrageous run of 128.
Ding is having none of it and replies with a 95 before winning the next as well to trail by one. Selby with a run of 64 for 11-9. The Chinese star wins the next to narrow the gap again and looks set to level at 11-11. A fifty point lead in frame 22 is whittled away by Selby and overturned on the final black. Crushing blow for Ding and it's 12-10 Selby. What has Ding got left in this sensational match?
BOOOOOOOOM 117 to trail by one and BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM a sublime 128 to level the match at 12-12 going into the final session tomorrow afternoon. The Crucible crowd go nuts and rightly so.
What an unbelievable match this is. Absolutely stupendous snooker from both men.


SF2: John Higgins 10-6 Barry Hawkins
Another error strewn session from both players interspersed with some frame winning contributions. Hawkins wins a scrappy first frame of the day to narrow his overnight arrears to 4-5. Higgins responds to take the next two aided with a break of 51 to go 7-4 clear. Hawkins fires in a century for 5-7.
However the Scot claims 3 of the last 4 frames to extend his lead to 10-6 overnight and leave Hawkins with a mountain to climb tomorrow where he will need to win 11 of the remaining 17 frames for an unlikely victory.