Ding Junhui & Jamie Cope to contest Masters semi-final

THE MASTERS
Venue: Wembley Arena Date: 9-16 January Coverage: Live action & highlights on BBC Two, Red Button and BBC Sport website; updates and reports on BBC Radio 5 live and online; watch again on iPlayer; full details of BBC coverage

Ding Junhui pots a black during his second break of 124 against Graeme Dott

Superb Ding makes Dott pay

Ding Junhui defeated an out-of-sorts Graeme Dott 6-2 to ease into the Masters semi-finals at Wembley Arena.

Ding, six places above the Scot in the world rankings in fourth, started in fine fashion, compiling three century breaks in the first four frames.

Dott won two typically scrappy frames to trail 3-2, but two fifties in three frames took Ding through.

In the last four he will play Masters debutant Jamie Cope who produced a stylish display to beat Mark King 6-1.

King had chances to win both of the first two frames.

In the opener he potted the final brown but tried to lay a snooker behind the pink and promptly left a simple blue into the centre for Cope, who duly cleared up.

Cope took the second frame with a composed clearance of 66 and half-centuries in both of the next two gave him a commanding 4-0 interval lead, with the volatile King showing signs of exasperation, not helped by the remnants of a flu virus.

But the gritty Essex left-hander spent the 15-minute break on the practice table and produced a fine 102 clearance when the match resumed.

606: DEBATE

Discuss the Masters action

He had an opportunity to score heavily in the sixth frame after the black cruelly flicked into the bottom corner when Cope potted a red, but could not do so as his opponent moved to within one frame of victory.

In frame seven King led after a run of 40. Cope responded with a 52 before losing position off the final red but then put King in trouble behind the black and soon booked his place in the semi-finals.

Earlier Dott, who registered a highest break of only 38 and scored 235 compared to Ding's 649, had struggled for fluency and missed a host of easy balls.

And 23-year-old Ding was in prime form to make the most of his chances, not least before the mid-session interval when he compiled runs of 124, 108 and a second 124.

QUARTER-FINALS (best of 11 frames)

Ding Junhui (Chn) 6-2 Graeme Dott (Sco)

Mark King (Eng) 1-6 Jamie Cope (Eng)

Mark Allen (NI) v Neil Robertson (Aus) - Fri 1330

Peter Ebdon (Eng) v Marco Fu (HK) - Fri 1900