It only seems the other day that the players were walking down the red carpet for this tournament’s inaugural ceremony but today left us with just 16 players left in the competition. This was a crucial day for Judd Trump as in the afternoon session he had the opportunity to climb to the number 1 spot, overtaking Ronnie O’Sullivan if he could just get past Joe Perry. On the day, it was like Trump’s play button had just been paused because the match was a replica of the last with Trump picking up the same excellent pace of form as before as he stroked in 2 centuries and 4 other 50 plus breaks on route to a 6-2 victory. Perry was disappointing as I know he can play a lot better than he did, however Trump is certainly on form and it will take someone playing extremely well to beat him.

For the second day running Mark Selby had to do battle with a close off the table friend as he and David Gilbert locked horns for a place in the quarter finals. Gilbert controlled large parts of the match but it was Selby who came through a 6-5 winner. Below is the match in full for you to enjoy….

In the evening session Neil Robertson faced Shaun Murphy in a battle of former world champions and on current form Neil had to be favourite, but as the saying goes “ form is temporary but class is permanent” and Shaun Murphy showed that he is still a major force to be reckoned with by battling back from 5-4 down to clinch victory. Check out the deciding frame of this encounter below…

Graeme Dott won the battle of Scottish legends as he came through an impressive 6-2 winner over John Higgins. Dott has quietly gone about his business in this tournament and the likeable Scotsman will fancy his chances of getting his hands on the trophy on Sunday evening.

Here is the match in full below….

Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo needed all 11 frames to find a winner in this epic battle. The match had many twists and turns but it was Ding who held his nerve in the decider to clinch victory and in the process keep the hopes of a Chinese winner on home soil alive.

Here is the match for you to enjoy…

Mark Allen kept his hopes up of retaining his title with a commanding 6-2 victory over Ali Carter. The likeable Northern Irishman powered in 6 breaks of 50 plus including a magnificent break of 119 on route to victory and he is looking in very good touch.

There were also victories for Gary Wilson and Tom Ford over Jak Jones and Andrew Higginson respectively.