FRIDAY’S quarter-final line-up at this year’s BetVictor Northern Ireland Open at the Waterfront in Belfast will include five players with world titles to their name.
World number one Judd Trump, four times a winner here and once at the Crucible (2011), was the last man through to the last eight late on Thursday night, his 4-1 victory over Barry Hawkins setting him up with a mouth-watering quarter-final against 2005 champion Shaun Murphy.
Murphy progressed the hard way again, coming from two frames behind for the third time this week to beat Stuart Bingham 4-3.
He had been 2-0 down to Chinese duo Jiang Jun and Zhou Yuelong before reeling off four frames in a row on both occasions, but he took his brinkmanship to another level on Thursday, winning three frames from 3-1 down, including the decider from 60 points behind.
Bingham’s 3-1 lead had been crafted with breaks of 121 and 101 after Murphy’s opening 104 – which broke down with two reds left with a maximum on – but Murphy battled back to 3-3 with breaks of 56 and 62.
Bingham was close to sealing the deal in the decider after an opening break of 60 but a superb 34 clearance eventually allowed Murphy to nick it on the black.
Murphy admitted it was “panic stations” at 3-1 down
“Wouldn’t it be nice to win easily!” said the 42-year-old, who reached his first ranking quarter-final in 2004.
“Stuart played incredibly well. At 3-1 I hadn’t done much wrong. It was panic stations but the trick is to stay calm because you usually get a chance.
‘’I got lucky in the last frame, if Stuart had got a good pack split on 60 in the decider it would have been over. I love coming here to Belfast and I’ve got strong ties here.”
Three-times world champion Mark Williams beat Ma Hailong of China 4-2 in a scrappy encounter, and he will face current Crucible king and world number two Kyren Wilson, who saw off teenage prospect Stan Moody 4-1.
2010 world champion Neil Robertson completed a 4-1 victory over Mark Allen’s conqueror Oliver Lines and he comes up against China’s Pang Junxu in Friday’s first quarter-final (12pm). Junxu beat Martin O’Donnell 4-0 yesterday.
Elliott Slessor, a former semi-finalist in the event, beat Lei Peifan of China 4-1 and he will face Louis Heathcote, who beat Tian Pengfei 4-2 contest this evening.
Friday’s quarter-finals
12pm Pang Junxu (Chi) v Neil Robertson (Aus) followed by Kyren Wilson (Eng) v Mark Williams (Wal)
7pm Shaun Murphy (Eng) v Judd Trump (Eng); Elliott Slessor (Eng) v Louis Heathcote (Eng)