Murphy and O'Sullivan Book Play-Off Places
After the penultimate week of the Premier League, three of the four play-off places are assured with either Mark Selby or Williams able to join Marco Fu, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Shaun Murphy.
O’Sullivan and Murphy booked their places in the Premier League Play-offs with victories over Neil Robertson and Mark Williams respectively in Grimsby.
Murphy was first up and got out of the starting blocks quickly, opening up a 2-0 lead with breaks of 64 and 97.
Despite looking slightly out-of-sorts, the Welshman won the third to stay in the hunt for a coveted top four place and entry into the lucrative final stages.
Murphy won the fourth to ensure at least a point and when he fluked the final black in the next, the defending champion was through, leaving the two time world champion needing the last frame of the match to have any chance.
Williams duly won the sixth and now needs O’Sullivan to beat Masters champion, Mark Selby by six-frames-to-nil ion next week’s clash to claim the final spot.
The second match of the night started slowly, despite the 25-second shot clock with both players making unforced errors and allowing the balls to run awkward.
O’Sulivan though, as he so often does managed to create something from nothing in the second half of the first two frames before securing maximum points and his place in the play-offs with breaks of 84 and 130 to lead 4-0.
The world champion, has never looked comfortable with the Premier League format, did manage to avoid the whitewash in the fifth and looked set to earn an extra £1000 in the last but missed on 59, allowing O’Sullivan to seal the 5-1 win with a 79 clearance.
The action moves to North Wales next week with Robertson looking to avoid the ‘wooden spoon’ by beating Murphy after the O’Sullivan-Selby clash.
