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Gareth Copley/PA Wire/Press Association Images
Pot Luck

Williams and Trump book places in Crucible final four

WATCH: Graeme Dott blows his opportunity to claim the tournament’s first maximum before bowing out to 21-year-old Judd Trump.

MARK WILLIAMS BECAME the first player to book his spot in the semi-final of the 2011 World Snooker Championships, taking less than an hour to complete his 13-5 victory over Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen at The Crucible this morning.

After a fairly even opening session left the match poised at 5-3 in the Welshman’s favour, the two-time world champion dominated the play yesterday evening, winning six of the eight frames on offer before finishing off his opponent this morning.

With Williams forging ahead last night, both players’ concentration was briefly broken as they stood arm-in-arm to watch Graeme Dott attempt to record this year’s first maximum on the adjacent table.

The Scot was 11-3 down against 21-year-old Judd Trump when he cleared 15 reds and blacks to leave himself with a break of 120 before poor positional play caused him to miss his very next shot.

Though Dott recovered to take the next frame and leave himself with an 11-5 deficit to sleep on, it took Trump just two frames this afternoon to seal his own place in the final four.

The young man from Bristol will face either Mark Selby, whom he beat earlier this month to win his first ranking title at the China Open, or China’s Ding Junhui in tomorrow’s semi-final. The pair resume their match at 7pm this evening with Ding leading by ten frames to six.

The Championship’s other quarter-final between world number one John Higgins and three-time champion Ronnie O’Sullivan remained finely poised overnight as the two stars split the opening session 4-4.

O’Sullivan picked up the first frame of this afternoon’s session to move into a 5-4 lead at the time of writing.

The final session of play is scheduled to begin at 7pm this evening with the winner facing Williams for a place in the final.