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UK Championship: Ronnie O'Sullivan to meet Stuart Bingham in semi-finals

Ronnie O'Sullivan during his game against Anthony McGill during the 2014 Coral UK Championship at the Barbican Centre, York.
Image: Ronnie O'Sullivan during his game against Anthony McGill

Ronnie O'Sullivan failed to repeat the form of Thursday's whitewash of Matthew Selt as he claimed a sluggish 6-4 victory over Anthony McGill in the UK Championship quarter-finals.

O'Sullivan had wrapped up his 6-0 defeat of Selt with a maximum break of 147, but he started slowly against McGill as he found himself 2-0 down at the Barbican Centre in York.

The four-time champion, who was celebrating his 39th birthday, quickly hit back as he got on the board with two breaks of 38.

Further breaks of 98 and 125 in the fourth and fifth frames helped O'Sullivan into a 3-2 lead, but McGill levelled at 3-3 thanks to breaks of 38 and 25.

O'Sullivan responded with a 57 and a follow-up 20 to retake the lead, and then won the next frame with a 33 and a 25 to close to within a frame of victory.

McGill was not about to throw in the towel and reduced his opponent's lead to 5-4 with a superbly-crafted century break in the ninth frame, but his resistance finally ended when O'Sullivan rolled in a 97 in the 10th frame to win the match. 

Stuart Bingham hit a 104 break in the deciding frame to eliminate Graeme Dott 6-5 and he will face fellow Essex player O'Sullivan next in the last four on Saturday.

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Dott led 4-1 and 5-3 at different stages of the quarter-final tie but Bingham twice rallied back and produced his finest work in the final frame of Friday's afternoon session.

Bingham had won the first frame but Dott seemed likeliest to progress after recording breaks of  68, 68 and 92 to take the next four.

The next two were won by Bingham but Dott still seemed assured of a semi-final berth against the 'Rocket' after breaks of 54 and 65 put him a frame away from victory.

Bingham was able to level proceedings with 32 and 64 breaks to take two consecutive frames but produced an inspired run in the decider - a break of 103 left Dott with no answer.

Judd Trump also booked his place in the semi-finals with an emphatic 6-1 victory over Mark Davis.

Breaks of 72 and 58 saw 2011 winner Trump race into a 2-0 lead before Davis responded with a 58 of his own to win the third frame.

However, Trump then registered half-century breaks to win the next four frames and wrap up the win.

Stephen Maguire completed the semi-final line-up with a 6-4 victory over 2008 runner-up Marco Fu.

A break of 95 in the second saw 2007 finalist Maguire secure a 2-0 lead before Fu hit back with a 50 to halve the deficit.

A break of 113 in the fifth frame gave Maguire a 4-1 lead and, although Fu won the next two frames to remain in contention, the 33-year-old Scot won two of the next three frames to prevail.

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