Ding ousts Murphy in thriller - 22/09/2011

Ding Junhui 3-2 Shaun Murphy
124-7 (Ding 92), 36-98 (Murphy 98), 8-117 (Murphy 98), 102-21 (Ding 87), 80-0 (Ding 80)

In the second semi-final, China’s Ding Junhui outlasted Shaun Murphy in a high-quality match up that had all five frames won in a single visit. It was Ding’s debut in this year’s competition and he looked sharp as he took the opener with a run of 92.

Murphy who is one of snooker’s foremost road warriors having spent the last two weeks in Shanghai and Brazil, with just a flying 24 hour stop off at home in the middle, levelled it with a run of 98. That was the highest of the evening and put him in line for the £1,000 prize.

Murphy equalled that in the next to take the lead before Ding got it back to all square with a superb 87, which set up the ‘shoot-out’ style finale. With a shortened shot clock, different foul rules and a maximum ten minutes for the frame, anything could have happened but Ding took all the drama out of the situation with a composed break of 80 to progress to the evening’s final.