The German Masters Day Three round up

It says a lot about what we saw today in The 2015 German Masters,that a 147 break is only a minor story,but that is certainly the case in what was one of the most extraordinary days snooker we have seen for a long time with all four quarter finals went the distance.

Lets get the 147 out of the way first,.It came in the tussle between Mark Selby and Judd Trump and was gotten by Trump as they resumed after their interval and in the context of the match closed him within one of Selby at 2-3.He leveled it at 3-3 in the next before Selby moved ahead again at 4-3,A couple of high scoring visits from Trump made it level at 4-4,so into a decider we went.

There Trump had the first scoring chance ,but when he broke down it fell to Selby to make a 60 break and clinch a place in the semi final with a 5-4 win.

While this was happening the people watching the main tv table were having a treat of their own as recent Masters champion Shaun Murphy took on Ronnie O'Sullivan.Murphy has an awful record against Ronnie,but got off the better start here to lead 2-0.Ronnie has looked in fine touch here this week though and with the aid of a 134 he quickly leveled it up at 2-2.

That became 4-2 to Ronnie after  the interval and in the past that would have been enough to break Murphy,but he is a different animal these days and fought his way back to force a decider at 4-4.

Murphy got in first here,but couldn't make it tell and this one seemed to be going to Ronnie,but he failed to disturb what would have been frame ball red from the cushion to leave it in the balance.A safety battle came to a head when an ambitious attempt at the red from Murphy failed and looked certain to be on for Ronnie,but the red ran far enough to be awkward and playing the cutback with his left hand Ronnie missed to gift a chance to Murphy.From here Murphy cleared to nick it on the black and send O'Sullivan packing 5-4.

This was the second deciding frame victory of the day for Murphy,who earlier came from 4-3 behind and in need of a snooker to beat Mark Allen.5-4. He is certainly riding the crest of a wave at the moment and next up for him in the semi final is a clash with Liang Wenbo who edged past Ryan Day also by a scoreline of 5-4.

As if all the above wasn't enough for the German snooker fans to enjoy the final match to conclude was provide yet more drama as Stephen Maguire took on Neil Robertson.

This one was close all the way with never a frame in at they traded blows to eventually go 4-4. In that decider it looked for all the world that Robertson had done enough as he left Maguire needing two snookers with only one red remaining,but somehow the Aussie conspired to foul the black into the middle pocket and Maguire dished to book a semi final date with Mark Selby.

So into the weekend we go and they say its when it goes down to the one table set up that the Tempodrom comes into its own.If it manages to match the drama we saw today,we're in for hell of a special weekend.