Barry Hawkins soars past Mark Selby to reach Masters Semi-Finals

Jonathan Davies in The Masters 14 January 2022

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Hawkins dominated Selby at Ally Pally on Friday (Adam Davy/PA Wire/PA Images)

Barry Hawkins reached his first Masters semi-final in five years after completing a 6-1 thrashing of Mark Selby on Friday.

The Hawk will play Judd Trump in the last four at Alexandra Palace after the Ace defeated Kyren Wilson by the same scoreline.

Indeed, it is the first time in snooker history that a Triple Crown event will be contested by four left-handed semi-finalists, with Neil Robertson and Mark Williams locking horns in the other tie.

Runner-up in 2016 and a semi-finalist the following year, Hawkins had failed to progress beyond the quarter-finals in his three attempts since.

Although, he did beat Selby 6-3 in their previous Masters clash at this stage five years ago, and drew first blood with a run of 58 before snatching the second frame on the black having got the snooker he required on the brown.

A three-time winner of snooker’s most prestigious invitational event, the Jester had not reached the semi-finals since a 10-4 defeat by Ronnie O’Sullivan in the 2014 showpiece.

The reigning World champion halved the deficit, but Hawkins regained the initiative by taking the next two frames with a top break of 65 along the way.

The lowest-ranked player remaining in the competition, the world number 10 then produced a brilliant 47 clearance to steal the sixth frame on the pink and move to within one of victory.

Hawkins needed no second invitation to book his place in the last four, having dropped just three frames along the way.

After defeating Shaun Murphy 6-2 in the opening round, he faces another former World and Masters champion in the semi-finals in Trump.

The 2019 winner opened with runs of 68 and 74 against rival Wilson, who replied with 71, before a tremendous 50 clearance from 54-14 behind in frame four opened a 3-1 lead.

Both players had prevailed in deciding frames in the opening round; Trump seeing off fellow left-hander Mark Allen and Wilson overcoming Stuart Bingham on the final pink.

But it was very much one-way traffic here. The fired-up Ace capitalised on the mistakes of his lacklustre opponent, with contributions of 76 and 67 seeing him through to a fifth Masters Semi-Final.

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