Robertson crushes O’Sullivan

Neil Robertson continued his scintillating form at the Dafabet Masters by sweeping aside defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan in emphatic fashion in today’s opening semi-final at Alexandra Palace.

Robertson, who produced what he described as one of the best performances of his career in beating Ali Carter 6-1 in the previous round, recorded the same scoreline as O’Sullivan suffered his first semi-final defeat in the competition after 10 successive wins.

O’Sullivan, looking for his sixth triumph in the event, soon found himself in trouble as Robertson took the opening frame with a 100 break before the Australian snatched the second after O’Sullivan missed a frame-ball black.

That became 3-0 before O’Sullivan finally showed what he was capable of with a 101 break in the fourth frame – the highest clearance of the match and the 777th century of the Englishman’s record-breaking career.

However, Robertson responded with a 58 break in the next to go 4-1 up and there was no way back for an under-par O’Sullivan, with the world number one reeling off the final two frames to complete a 6-1 drubbing.

Robertson will now go in search of his second Masters victory and first title since the 2014 Wuxi Classic against either Mark Allen or Shaun Murphy, who meet later today.