Ryan Day continued his fine recent form by overcoming John Higgins 4-1 to reach the semi-finals of the Romanian Masters on Friday.
The Welshman, who captured his second ranking title last week with victory in the Gibraltar Open, has now won nine matches in a row – all under the best of seven format.
In the semi-finals this weekend, in which the matches lengthen a touch to the best of nine, Day will face Kyren Wilson after the Englishman triumphed against countryman Judd Trump 4-2.
Day will be hoping to maintain his impressive run ahead of next week’s Players Championship, a tournament that will represent the 37 year-old’s final opportunity to break into the top 16 in the world rankings before the World Championship next month.
That is because Day, who also won the Riga Masters at the outset of the campaign, failed to qualify for the lucrative China Open so, while his upsurge in form has come at just the right time, he doesn’t have much to play with.
As an invitational event, the Romanian Masters doesn’t provide any ranking points but another trophy would surely do wonders for Day’s confidence ahead of the trip to Llandudno.
Against Kettering’s Wilson, Day boasts a far superior head-to-head record with the former recording just a single win from their previous encounters with one another.
Wilson compiled breaks of 95, 84, and 56 to beat Trump in the last eight as his opponent failed to reproduce the power scoring from his previous round drubbing of Luca Brecel.
Wilson is still in search of his first piece of silverware this season after defeats in both the finals of the World Open and English Open in the first half of the term, as well as in the final of the prestigious Masters at the turn of the year.
In Saturday’s opening last four clash, Stuart Bingham and Ali Carter will battle for a place in the final, where a €50,000 top prize is on offer for the champion.
Bingham, who missed three months of the season due to a ban for betting, outplayed Liang Wenbo with a 4-1 scoreline while Carter, with breaks of 136 and 83, held off a spirited fight back from Stephen Maguire to prevail in a decider.
The pair has unsurprisingly met on numerous occasions in the past, including in high-profile affairs in each of the three Triple Crown events, with Carter holding the advantage.
However, Bingham won their last two ties convincingly to the loss of just a couple of frames and will surely be the slightly favourite going into today’s semi-final too.
