Four player remain in the hunt for the Masters title, with the semi-finals set for Saturday at the Alexandra Palace in London.
The quartet is on course to land the Paul Hunter Trophy and a top prize in London worth £250,000.
Ali Carter vs Mark Allen
Saturday, 7pm UTC
A dramatic Friday saw both Mark Allen and Ali Carter emerge from their quarter-final fixtures in deciding frames.
In the afternoon session, Carter came from behind to deny reigning champion Judd Trump in a 6-5 thriller.
Later, Allen ousted Mark Selby by the same narrow margin – the Northern Irishman compiling a magnificent 147 break in the process.
Allen and Carter’s head-to-head is close, with the former enjoying only a narrow advantage from their prior battles together.
Their most recent duel was also over the best-of-11 frames, with Allen prevailing 6-2 en route to capturing the Champion of Champions in November.
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Shaun Murphy
Saturday, 1pm UTC
Before that, the first semi-final of the 2024 Masters will take place on Saturday afternoon between Ronnie O’Sullivan and Shaun Murphy.
The pair emerged from their last-eight ties on Thursday with respective 6-3 triumphs over Barry Hawkins and Jack Lisowski.
O’Sullivan and Murphy have often clashed off the table, which always makes their meetings on it all the more intriguing.
The Rocket has generally enjoyed the better of their head-to-head clashes, winning 15 to Murphy’s four in all competitions.
Both understand what it takes to go all the way to Masters glory, with Murphy hoping to replicate his success from nine years ago at the Ally Pally.
O’Sullivan, of course, is looked to triumph in this tournament for a record-extending eighth time.
2024 Masters
– draw, live scores, results –
Last 16 (bo11)
Judd Trump 6-5 Kyren Wilson
Mark Williams 4-6 Ali Carter
Mark Selby 6-1 Robert Milkins
Mark Allen 6-5 John Higgins
—
Ronnie O’Sullivan 6-3 Ding Junhui
Neil Robertson 3-6 Barry Hawkins
Shaun Murphy 6-2 Zhang Anda
Luca Brecel 2-6 Jack Lisowski
Quarter-Finals (bo11)
Judd Trump 5-6 Ali Carter
Mark Selby 5-6 Mark Allen
—
Ronnie O’Sullivan 6-3 Barry Hawkins
Shaun Murphy 6-3 Jack Lisowski
Semi-Finals (bo11)
Ali Carter 6-3 Mark Allen
—
Ronnie O’Sullivan 6-2 Shaun Murphy
Final (bo19)
Ali Carter 7-10 Ronnie O’Sullivan
Featured photo credit: WST
Cuetracker oddly has Mark Allen beating Carter in this season’s Shootout final when he actually beat Cao Yupeng. They’re are 6-6 in all meetings longer than best of 5 and Allen won their only previous Triple Crown meeting – 6-2 at the 2011 UK Championship. A strange match as Allen dominated the scoring but was 4-1 down at one stage.
O’Sullivan has won all of his Triple Crown matches with Murphy. You could add a few more to the list of players where there’s no love lost with the world number one. Selby, Carter, Selt, Holt and King spring to mind!
I think you meant Paul Hunter Trophy! A pity the Paul Hunter Classic has been lost. Always important for snooker to remember Paul so tragically cut short in his prime.
Yes indeed, Paul Hunter Trophy!
The strange match I was referring to was tonight’s Allen/Selby clash.