Murphy capitalised on several errors

Murphy will now play Londoner Barry Hawkins, who reached the last four for the second successive year by beating Thailand's James Wattana 5-3.

Stephen Lee reached his first ranking event semi-final in two years by beating Scotland's Graeme Dott 5-2.

He now faces Anthony Hamilton, who defeated Ian McCulloch 5-2.

Murphy was pleased to reach his first semi-final since last year's World Championships.

But he was also annoyed after being on course for a 147 break in the final frame, only to snooker himself on the yellow after making 120.

In my view I've lost to the person who is going to win the title Mark Williams

"I'll kick myself because chances for a maximum don't come much better than that but I'm still delighted to have got through," he said.

As for Williams, he said he could have no complaints after his errors allowed Murphy to dominate.

"I can't grumble because I didn't play well enough to win the match and in my view I've lost to the person who is going to win the title," said Williams.

"I played to a similar standard in my previous two matches but you can't get away with it all the time."

Lee led 4-0 early on but wobbled as Dott took the next two frames before compiling a break of 54 in the seventh frame to wrap up the match.

Neither of us seemed to get up for the match but lady luck seems to be with me at the moment Barry Hawkins

Lee, whose last semi-final came at the 2004 European Open, said: "I haven't been firing on all cylinders here. I've been plodding along so to win three matches on the spin is great."

Hawkins, beaten 6-4 in the semi-finals by Ronnie O'Sullivan last year, led 4-1 but needed numerous chances before stumbling over the line.

"I can't believe I won," said the world number 10 from Sydenham. "It must be my worst performance as a professional.