Trump outguns O’Sullivan

Trump will face Mark Williams or Neil Robertson in the last four on Saturday. He will start as a strong favourite to reach the final after outmuscling O'Sullivan for much of the afternoon here.

Trump had enjoyed a 6-5 win over O'Sullivan on his way to winning the UK Championship last month, but it became clear early on that the Bristol player was not in the mood to see this one go close.

O'Sullivan - who has won four Masters and reached five finals of the invitational event - could and should have won the opening frame, but missed a simple black to enable Trump to step in with a clearance of 39 and pinch it.

An effort of 66 was more than enough to hand Trump the second after O'Sullivan had missed a red trying to play safe.

The crowd were firmly in O'Sullivan's corner, but they could only watch as the former Masters champion broke down on 49 when he looked poised to trouser his first frame of the match.

Instead Trump pieced together an awe-inspiring break of 78 to move three frames to the good.

That quickly moved to 4-0 in Trump's favour after O'Sullivan was short of the baulk cushion in breaking off.

Trump promptly holed a difficult long red before pressing on to make the highest break of the week with a run of 140, which was one more than Shaun Murphy's 139 effort until O'Sullivan astonishingly later bettered it.

O'Sullivan staved off the whitewash with an admirable knock of 67, but found himself on the brink of elimination having made only 28 in the sixth frame from two scoring opportunities.

Trump finally sealed the frame by holing the final green after O'Sullivan had played a poor safety shot when needing the remaining five colours to force a re-spotted black.

O'Sullivan continued to remain focused as a run of 141 handed him the highest break of the tournament ahead of Trump. He is line to pick up £15,000 for that contribution.

O'Sullivan opened with a 54 in the eighth frame, but he was well and truly trumped as his opponent finished off with a 65 to secure a deserved passage to the semi-finals.