Masters snooker LIVE: Ronnie O’Sullivan beats Shaun Murphy to reach final

Cracking atmosphere at Ally Pally. O’Sullivan breaks and we’re underway in the semi-final - a safety exchange to begin things.

MC Rob Walker gets the boys on the baize. A typically rapturous reception for O’Sullivan, although a nice welcome for Murphy as well.

Let’s get this going - remember, it’s best of 11, so whoever is first to six frames books a place in the final.

This is a bit of a grudge match - Ronnie and Shaun don’t really like each other. They’re always sniping away in the press, so it will be interesting to see if that gives one of other of them added motivation.

It’s also worth noting that Shaun Murphy was on punditry duty until gone midnight for the BBC last night - covering the Mark Allen v Mark Selby quarter-final that went all the way. Surely not ideal preparation to face the greatest snooker player of all time...?

We’re probably about 15 minutes away from this afternoon’s semi-final getting underway. Shaun Murphy has arguably been in better form than Ronnie O’Sullivan this week but the head-to-head overwhelmingly favours The Rocket.

He leads it 14-4 and Murphy hasn’t beaten the seven-time Masters winners since the 2017 Champion of Champions final, where he triumphed 10-8. Seven years is a long time to wait!

There is a scene in Edge of Everything, the new documentary about Ronnie O’Sullivan, that provides as sharp an analysis as you will ever see of the pressures of top-level sport. It is from footage taken in his dressing room during the final of the 2022 World Snooker Championship in Sheffield.

At 46, O’Sullivan is poised to become the oldest winner of the title in history. But as he takes a break in the scrabble to overcome his opponent Judd Trump, he is behaving less like a seasoned veteran and more like a panicked teenager, stomping around the room in total dismay, close to tears in his frustration.

“F*** me Steve,” he tells his resident psychiatrist coach Dr Steve Peters. “I’m bashed up here mate. What do I do?”

The gap between O’Sullivan’s apparently serene progress to gaining his record-breaking seventh world title and what was going on in his head at the time is what makes him such a fascinating character. Even better, such is his garrulous lack of worldly concern, he has long been more than happy to let us, his army of admirers, get a glimpse of what is happening beneath the bonnet. For much of his extraordinary career dominating and defining his sport, it is almost as if, for this complicated, troubled, challenged individual, we are part of the process of therapy. That he needs to share the burden in order to stay one step ahead.

Read Jim White’s analysis of the snooker legend:

There are a number of eye-opening moments in the new Ronnie O’Sullivan documentary, The Edge of Everything, which lays bare one of the most complex and compelling characters in sport and a lifelong battle with his own genius. But one scene is particularly striking, when O’Sullivan and his parents remember his father’s arrest and sentencing for murder.

“I don’t want to talk about this because it’s not fair on the people that have lost their son,” says Ronnie O’Sullivan Sr, of the night he stabbed Bruce Bryan to death in a club on Chelsea’s King’s Road and injured Bruce’s brother Kelvin. “I know I took that man’s life and I know I hurt the other one ... I’m still alive, thank God, but if I hadn’t done what I’d done, I’d be dead.”

Read Lawrence Ostlere’s review of the Ronnie O’Sullivan documentary, The Edge of Everything:

Ronnie O’Sullivan has hit out at iconic London venue Alexandra Palace, saying it is “disgusting” and playing there makes him “feel ill”.

The snooker world number one is playing at the Masters at Alexandra Palace this week, where he is a seven-time champion, but said he “can’t wait to get out of here” after advancing to the semi-finals.

The 159-year-old venue in north London has hosted the Masters tournament since 2012 and has also staged the PDC World Darts Championship since 2008, where Luke Littler stunned the sport with his run to the final last week.

But O’Sullivan is not impressed by playing at Alexandra Palace and said after his 6-3 win over Barry Hawkins on Thursday: “I just don’t like this place. I find it disgusting.

“Everywhere is dirty. It’s cold. It’s freezing, I have to wear my coat everywhere. You go through car parks. There are bins. Honestly, it just makes me feel ill.”

Ronnie O’Sullivan relished the prospect of a “massive, dirty curry” after grinding out a 6-3 win over Barry Hawkins in a Masters quarter-final that lacked spice.

The seven-time Masters winner looked under the weather as he wore a thick coat for his post-match TV interview, muttering: “I fancy a curry – a massive, dirty curry. There’s nothing I don’t like.”

In a match awash with errors from both players, O’Sullivan kicked off with a break of 88 but had to wait until the penultimate frame to post his next half-century, a 60 to move one frame from victory, before wrapping it up with a break of 77

O’Sullivan said he had been “lucky to get through” to what will be his 15th appearance in the semi-finals of the Masters.

“I felt bad for Barry, I just dragged him down to my level. It’s a funny old game,” O’Sullivan told BBC Sport. “I didn’t feel any pressure at all to be honest, maybe that’s why I played like I did. I think you need that pressure sometimes to get you motivated.

Mark Allen registered the second 147 of this year’s Masters as he edged past Mark Selby 6-5 and into the semi-finals.

After losing the first two frames, Allen got off the mark by producing another maximum to add to Ding Junhui’s in the opening round at Alexandra Palace, the third of the Northern Irishman’s career.

Selby subsequently moved 4-1 ahead before Allen claimed four frames in a row, including a break of 103, to take the lead.

After Selby brought things level again, Allen took the final frame to book a semi-final clash with Ali Carter.

First round (best of 11 frames)

Sunday 7 January

• 1pm: Luca Brecel 2-6 Jack Lisowski
• 7pm: Shaun Murphy 6-2 Zhang Anda

Monday 8 January

• 1pm: Ronnie O’Sullivan 6-3 Ding Junhui
• 7pm: Mark Williams 4-6 Ali Carter

Tuesday 9 January

• 1pm: Judd Trump 6-5 Kyren Wilson
• 7pm: Neil Robertson 3-6 Barry Hawkins

Wednesday 10 January

• 1pm: Mark Allen 6-5 John Higgins
• 7pm: Mark Selby 6-1 Robert Milkins

Quarter-finals (best of 11 frames)

Thursday 11 January

• 1pm: QF3 - Ronnie O’Sullivan 6-3 Barry Hawkins
• 7pm: QF4 - Jack Lisowski 3-6 Shaun Murphy

Friday 12 January

• 1pm: QF1 - Judd Trump 5-6 Ali Carter
• 7pm: QF2 - Mark Allen 6-5 Mark Selby

Semi-finals (best of 11 frames)

Saturday 13 January

• 1pm: Ronnie O’Sullivan v Shaun Murphy – BBC One, Eurosport and Discovery+
• 7pm: Ali Carter v Mark Allen – BBC Two, Eurosport and Discovery+

Final (best of 19 frames)

Sunday 14 January

• 1pm and 7pm – BBC Two, Eurosport and Discovery+