Rocket races into semis

O'Sullivan: missed two 147 chances

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Ronnie O'Sullivan will play John Higgins in the Welsh Open semi-final after producing a ruthless 5-2 demolition of Mark Allen in the last eight.

The Essex cueman twice narrowly missed out on his 10th career 147 maximum, in the fourth and fifth frames respectively.

O'Sullivan broke down after potting 11 reds and blacks in the fourth but in the next managed to sink all 15 reds and blacks.

A tricky yellow also disappeared but a more routine green finished in the jaws to end the break on 122, much to his own apparent amusement.

The world number one had fallen 1-0 and 2-1 behind in the early stages but he was mostly highly impressive and runs of 92, 88, 90 and 50 on top of the century proved to be frame winners.

Allen, whose highest break was 54, could only watch and admire as O'Sullivan breezed through the frames and completed victory in an hour and eight minutes.

Reflecting on the missed green, O'Sullivan said: "I wasn't quite straight on it and had to pinch a bit of the pocket."

He added: "I was pleased with my performance, it was a professional display.

"Mark is a top player and he will win lots of matches so I'm pleased to get through."

World champion Higgins, meanwhile, had a top break of 89 in his 5-2 quarter-final success over Mark Selby.

The Scot did not score as heavily as O'Sullivan but was never headed, tearing into a 3-0 lead and sealing his win with two scoring visits in the seventh frame.

Maguire, Carter through

Welshman Mark Williams was sent crashing out of his home tournament, beaten 5-1 by world number two Stephen Maguire in their quarter-final.

Maguire had runs of 65, 69, 88, 66 and 67 in his comprehensive victory, while former world champion Williams could not reproduce the impressive form he has showed since the start of the year and his highest break was 46.

The Glaswegian will meet defending champion Ali Carter in the last four after Carter completed the semi-final line-up by ending the Newport crowd's hopes of seeing a Welsh winner on Sunday.

Ryan Day followed compatriot Williams in tumbling out of the tournament as Carter posted a 5-2 victory.

The Englishman surged into a 4-0 lead and, despite allowing Day to pull two frames back, was not to be caught.