Ronnie O’Sullivan, Neil Robertson into world snooker semi-finals

London: Reigning champion Ronnie O’Sullivan breezed into the World Championship semi-finals with a session to spare on Wednesday after completing a 13-3 win over Shaun Murphy.

Murphy made a strong start to their quarter-final on Tuesday by winning the first two frames, but O’Sullivan roared back and won the next six frames to establish a 6-2 overnight lead.

The five-time champion stretched his advantage to 8-2 on Wednesday morning before 2005 champion Murphy clawed a frame back, but a break of 118 gave O’Sullivan a 9-3 advantage at the mid-session interval.

After a short delay due to a technical problem with the scoreboard, O’Sullivan capitalised on a couple of routine misses by Murphy to close out victory.

O’Sullivan admitted that he had not been expecting such a straightforward victory.

“You just never know what type of match you’re going to get,” he told BBC television.

“You can expect a really tough match and it turned out easy like it did with Shaun. I didn’t expect to win it that easy, to be fair. He’s a free-scoring, great potter.

“He just missed a few balls and let me in quite easily. I still had to pot them, but I didn’t have to fight for my chances.”

Murphy said: “I knew it was going to be a challenge. Nobody has beaten him here for nearly three years and I don’t think there’s a player in the game he hasn’t done that to at some stage.”

O’Sullivan will now face 2013 runner-up Barry Hawkins who beat Welshman Dominic Dale 13-12.

World number one Neil Robertson reached the last-four by coming back from 6-2 and 9-6 down to beat England’s Judd Trump 13-11.

Robertson of Australia also became the first player to score 100 century breaks in the same season in booking a semi-final spot against Mark Selby who finished off a one-sided 13-5 win over Alan McManus.

Leading 12-4 overnight, Leicester cueman Selby needed only one frame to complete victory, but Scottish veteran McManus took the day’s first frame thanks to a break of 69.

It proved only a stay of execution, however, and when McManus could not exploit his opportunities in the next frame, Selby pounced to set up a last-four meeting with Robertson.

“I think it was four years ago since I was in the semi-final before, so it seems like forever with so many tournaments now during the season,” Selby said.

“I’m looking forward to it and can’t wait to get out there.”