Judd Trump beat Mark Allen 6-5 to reach the semi-finals of International Championship in Chengdu

Trump has not won a ranking title since York last December but he is now just two matches away from the £125,000 first prize after a topsy-turvy clash which included a series of century breaks.

The Bristolian piled up a 107 run to lead 4-2 but Allen responded with a superb 121 and then came back from 41-0 down in the 10th frame with a break of 104 taking the match to a decider.

Allen fell 61 points behind but still had a chance with five reds on the table, but he misjudged escaping a Trump snooker and left one of them over the centre pocket, which Trump duly potted to secure victory and a showdown with Peter Ebdon on Friday.

"I had a good lead then I was just trying to finish it off. I kept going into the pack and landing on nothing so I was getting frustrated. But I just had to try to stay patient and wait for a chance," Trump said.

"It will be a different challenge against Peter. I'll just have to play my own game, try to get in front and try to dominate the match."

Easier route

Ebdon had a far easier route to the last-four as he crushed Ricky Walden 6-0 in a scrappy encounter in which his top break was only 81.

In the other half of the draw, Shaun Murphy had to dig deep in his quarter-final match against Marco Fu. The world No 5 trailed 3-1, before winning four on the trot, eventually going through 6-4.

His next opponent will be Neil Robertson, who had fewer problems in seeing off teenage local Lu Haotian 6-2. The Australian did at one stage slip 2-1 down but then reeled off five frames in a row to end the 14-year-old's run in the tournament.

"It was strange playing someone so young," said 30-year-old Robertson, Crucible champion in 2010. "It made me feel really old.

"I had to use all of my experience, especially in the close frames. I won two on the black otherwise it could have been different. Lu has got a tremendous future."