Allen to face Murphy in Masters last four

Murphy fell 2-0 down early on but rallied strongly to keep up his superb record at Alexandra Palace, where he has reached four consecutive semi-finals.

But the former world champion is wary of a tough match that stands between him and a second appearance in the final as he bids to win the third of snooker's "triple crown": World Championship, UK Championship and Masters.

"Every match here could be a final and it will be tough against Mark Allen," said Murphy.

"The only player who seems to win easily here is O'Sullivan, he sails through matches. Everyone else is playing people on a similar level. I didn't see Mark play today because I was practising, but what happened today doesn't matter because we will start tomorrow fresh.

"I feel that I'm scoring heavily when I get chances and I've been doing that for a year now. I won four titles and made three 147s last year and you don't do that if you're not scoring. But as John Parrott said today, you can play as well as you like, it's winning that matters...

"There's very little that beats the atmosphere here. I don't know whether it's the venue or the London crowd, but I think it's only the World Championship final that comes anywhere near the atmosphere of a full Ally Pally. The crowds have been fantastic."

Earlier on, Allen overcame Joe Perry 6-4 in a turgid contest to reach the semi-finals of the Masters at Alexandra Palace.

The Northern Irishman was a poor imitation of the figure who unearthed some immaculate snooker to oust John Higgins 6-4 in the first round, but he managed to do enough to stave off Perry, who squandered plenty of opportunities to progress.

"For long periods of that match, it was embarrassing," said Allen, who will face Stephen Maguire or Shaun Murphy in the semi-finals on Saturday night.

Allen led 3-1, but runs of 50, 68 and 67 helped England's Perry to draw level at 404.

And run of 55 helped Allen move one up with two to play before he scrambled over the line in the 10th frame to prevent a final-frame decider in a match that ran for three hours and 36 minutes.

Perry must console himself with a surprise 6-3 win over Ding Junhui in the first round, but he will be aware that he was given enough scope to avoid elimination in the last eight.

Thursday 15 January

13:00

Ronnie O'Sullivan (Eng) 6-1 Marco Fu (HK)

19:00

Ali Carter (Eng) 1-6 Neil Robertson (Aus)

13:00

Joe Perry (Eng) 4-6 Mark Allen (NI)

19:00

Stephen Maguire (Sco) 4-6 Shaun Murphy (Eng)