International Championship

Watched the Bai Yulu 145 on You Tube earlier. What a supremely constructed break. Awesome stuff.

Wu Yize came back from 4-0 down to beat Judd 6-4. Wu won 6 frames in a row with a slew of over 60 breaks, including a 109. The International Championship is the cutoff for the top 16 positions in the UK Championship. Chris Wakelin is currently 16th, but he's out and Wu can make the top 16 if he can keep going.

Lisowski almost equalled Wu's feat, coming back from 4-0 down against Hawkins to level at 4-4. Sadly Hawkins won the next 2 frames to win 6-4.

Zhao Xintong won the shootout with Si Jiahui 6-1. Selby beat McGill 6-1.

The new look bald Maguire beat Jiang Jun 6-4.

The old look bald John Higgins beat fellow Scotsman Scott Donaldson 6-5 after making an 89 break in the decider. Donaldson may have lost, but at least the Perthshire Potting Prince still has hair.

Ding Junhui won't be retaining his crown. Sadly he lost 6-2 to Tubbs.

Zak Surety continued his good run, beating Neil Robertson 6-3.

Quarter Final line-up:

Mark Selby v Zhao Xintong
Wu Yize v Hawkins
Zak Surety v Stephen Maguire
Tubbs v John Higgins

Some cracking quarter final matches there. Just a shame Lord Misery remains. Hopefully he can disposed of in short order.

Given Hawkins disposed of yesterday's hero Lisowski, I fully expect him to turf Wu out next.

Neil Robertson must be kicking himself; every passing tournament seems to make his chances of re-establishing himself dwindle.

I'm not making any predictions cos the opposite will happen in all cases .

Someone will win though.
If it transpires that prediction is wrong I officially give up .

Wu Yize 6 Hawkins 0
An over 60 break in every frame, including a 111l

The other match was bit closer. Selby made a 107 break to go 4-2 up. Zhao Xintong won 3 frames in a row to take a 5-4 lead. Selby made an 81 break to take the match to a decider. A decisive 63 break by Zhao gave him a 6-5 victory.

I wish Wu Yize v Zhao Xintong could be the final. I want both of them to win!

Edit: Wu v Zhao is the first semi-final.

I'm glad to be wrong, partly because it's always more interesting when lesser names go deep in tournaments.

The other semi-final is unlikely to prove this.

John Higgins 6 Tubbs 2

Maguire beat Zak Surety 6-1, I thought it was going to be a bit closer.

2nd Semi-Final: John Higgins v Maguire

Booooooo.
Bloody misery.