2016 European Masters - the quarter-finals

After five days of intense cue-action going on here in Bucharest at the Globus Circus, we have only four names left in the hat: Mark Selby, Judd Trump, Neil Robertson and Ronnie O'Sullivan.

All four of them had to play their way in order to reach the latest stages of the European Masters, for some the job being easy, for some ... not quite.

Judd Trump obtained a crystal clear victory of 4-0 in the quarter-finals against John Higgins, the Bristol man firing in breaks of 42, 74 and a classical 105 to book his place in the semis.

And it wasn't a very different story for Mark Selby either, "The Jester from Leicester" recording the same result in front of Alfie Burden, after breaks of 84, 136 and 102; Selby's 136 is currently the highest break of the tournament overcoming Allen's 121.


Ronnie O'Sullivan also got through the semis after beating Mark Davis 4-1, although the scoreline fails to tell the entire story as the match itself was a pretty tight one.

Ronnie was the first on to get his name on the scoreboard thanks to a break of 54, but the second frame proved massive, as he missed a red to the right middle pocket down on 32 this allowing Davis to return at the table.

Sadly for him though he missed the last red on 36, a tricky little bugger who was staying very close along the cushion, O'Sullivan closing with a 28 to go 2-0 up.

However, Mark did get his payback, the next frame being won with a tremendous break of 134. Were there chances for a comeback?

Ronnie's runs of 35 and 27, followed by a 129 in frame five, would say no. Ronnie's 129 would have equaled Mark's 136, but "The Rocket" missed the last black.

Funny enough this is O'Sullivan's first century break this season, the man saying in the press conference afterwards that "I was going to try and go a full season without making a century just for a laugh, but I forgot tonight, so yeah I made one this season so yeah ... it's allright."

The last match of the day (and the last quarter-final) featured the names of  Neil Robertson and Anthony McGill and it was a real test of nerves and patience. For both the players and the audience.


The match lasted almost three hours and it was a classical case of safety shots battle, twist and turns, drama and thrill all put carefully together and spiced up with a bit of tension.

The start of the match saw Robertson taking the opener with a break of 61, while the second one went dramatically Ants' way after leaving his opponent in need of two snookers (which btw he got!).

Frame three came and with it McGill miss down on 51, this transforming the game in a genuine scrapper and ending it on the colours, Robertson putting his nose back in front after winning it on the black.

Still, McGill managed to crawl his way back into the match with a top break of 56 for a 2-2 scoreline, but drama kicked in once more during the next frame when the lads found each-other fighting on the colours. And as before, Neil was the one to win the battle.

As he did with the last frame with just a top break of 32.

There's been a lot of noise on Social Media after the match in regard to Anthony's slow way of playing and selecting shots, even Marcel Eckardt warning him about the time he took on potting certain balls.

There were some rough comments from McGill himself about getting a warning, but Robertson was sure to take his Scottish opponent's side and say he isn't a slow player at all.


Focusing on the main thing here though, we have some pretty huge semi-finals (best of 11) on our hands my dears! So I invite you to watch the lads at work this Saturday!

1pm
Mark Selby v. Judd Trump

7pm
Ronnie O'Sullivan v. Neil Robertson

* all hours are Romania time

Photos credit: Lewis Ward