Shanghai master semis: mark Selby face Shaun Murphy” master O’Sullivan set to damage” a fierce beast” who vows to take it home” after several past encounter with Ronnie….
In the opening semi-final on Friday, Mark Selby will play Shaun Murphy over a best-of-19 frames format. The final four matches will include only English players. The four semi-finalists crushed local hopes because the four beaten quarter-finalists were all well-known Chinese celebrities. Murphy defeated Zhou Yuelong 6-2, O’Sullivan defeated Ding Junhui 6-3, Trump defeated Si Jiahui 6-2, and Selby defeated Pang Junxu 6-3.
The Englishmen won each of them rather easily, but they will have to contend with tougher matches over longer distances in the semifinals. The Rocket extended his amazing winning streak in the Shanghai Masters to 21 matches, making him the clear favorite to take home the trophy on Sunday. Trump wants to become the first player to defeat O’Sullivan in Shanghai since Michael Holt accomplished it in 2016. O’Sullivan has won the last four iterations of the competition and has raised the trophy five times overall.
In all competitions, O’Sullivan and Trump’s head-to-head record is 18–15 in the Rocket’s favor, which is quite even when compared to many other records between the seven-time world champion and his competitors. But O’Sullivan has been the better of the two in their last five confrontations, winning all five. Trump’s last win came at the World Grand Prix in December 2020.
With the match seemingly in the balance at 3-3, the world number five was not playing at his unstoppable best against Ding. However, he stormed to victory with breaks of 131, 70, and 62 after that.
With a fairly convincing victory over Zhou, Murphy advanced to the semi-finals as the first player. He maintained his strong play, defeating John Higgins in the previous round. “Delighted to win and get through to the semi-finals, because I really rate Zhou Yuelong,” Murphy wrote on Instagram. “He’s one of the players from China who’s got a great career ahead of him.” TRENDING FOR YOU
I knew I had to play well today and thankfully I managed to keep the form rolling and ended up playing alright.’
Selby leads Murphy 24-19 in all competitions on their head-to-head, but it is the Magician who has the better recent memories, getting the better of the Jester in their two most recent contests.
‘I feel like I’m one positional shot away every time, one bit of cue ball control from really scoring heavily,’ said Murphy. ‘I’ve not had any centuries yet in the 12 frames that I’ve won in the Shanghai Masters at the moment, I just keep making 60s, 70s and 80s and I suppose that’s good enough
But I think I’ll need a bit more than that to get past my next opponent, up againstmy good mate Mark Selby. We’ve had so many good matches over the years. Best of 19 semi-final out here, centre stage, it’s not going to be one to miss.’
