Rocket sinks Ding in Shanghai

Ronnie O'Sullivan booked his place in the semi-finals of the Roewe Shanghai Masters today with a 5-3 win over Ding Junhui.

The three-time world champion will now take on current Crucible king John Higgins in the last four tomorrow, after the Scot beat Ryan Day 5-1.

O'Sullivan came out on top in a match featuring seven breaks over 50, and one century. Ding forged ahead with a break of 57 and led in the second before a clearance of 28 from O'Sullivan levelled it, and the Englishman then went 3-1 ahead with a 64 and a 101.

O'Sullivan triumphed in the fifth with a cool 70 but the Chinese player hit back to make it 4-3 with 61 and 99. He had a chance in the eighth frame but after his break ended on 26, O'Sullivan rattled off 83 to set up a meeting with Higgins next.

O'Sullivan said: ‘I went into the match with the mentality that I had to raise my game and play better than I had in my first two matches.

‘Ding had been flowing and I knew I could lose. That helped keep my mind sharp. It was a strange game, Ding was first in the ball in every frame. He'll be disappointed because he might feel he deserved to win.

‘Sometimes a frame is decided on one ball, and you have to take your chance when it comes.

‘Ding is a great player, he's got fantastic bottle and he's in a better frame of mind than he was two years ago. But he needs to win a tournament to get his confidence back.’

Ding added: ‘I'm not disappointed because I stayed focused throughout the match and it was the best I played during the tournament. I was a bit unlucky.’

Higgins overcame Welshman Day in a scrappy match which lasted one hour and 43 minutes.

Higgins: ‘I'm very pleased to win but it was a bad match, Ryan had lots of chances. When two players miss balls they feed off each other, the same as when they play well. It was just a bad match.’

Earlier in the day, Shaun Murphy dismantled Ken Doherty to record his second straight 5-0 win and book his place in the semi-finals.

Breaks of 75, 68, 62, 53 and 123 sealed a thoroughly one-sided win in only one hour and 15 minutes for the world number three, who will play Liang Wenbo in the last four.

Murphy, who beat Jamie Cope 5-0 in the last round, said: ‘I came here with a good mentality and so far I've played well.

‘I've played tight, not given away chances and scored well when I've been in the balls. My next match is sure to be difficult but hopefully I'll keep winning.’

Defending champion Ricky Walden's hopes of retaining his title are over, though, after he went down 5-3 to Liang of China.

Walden knocked in a break of 103 to make it 1-1 and a 122 total clearance to make it 4-3, but Liang held his nerve to progress into his first ranking event semi-final.

Liang said: ‘I am very happy to win the game, I felt relaxed during the match.

Looking ahead to his last-four clash with Murphy, he added: ‘Murphy is a very good player. I will have to pay more attention to my safety.’