There was no big surprises at Wednesday's session of 188BET Champion of Champions at Ricoh Arena as Joe Perry secured his semi-final place after winning the final frame decider against John Higgins, writes Ziad Chaudry.
Earlier in the day the 41-year-old from the Cambridgeshire town of Wisbech beat Michael White 4-2, the exact same scoreline four-time world champion Higgins achieved over Ali Carter.
Perry, who qualified for the £300,000 Coventry snooker tournament through winning the PTC Grand Final forced this Group 1 showdown into a final 11th frame decider after hitting a well executed 87 break.
He immediately took full control with combining breaks of 32 and 30.
It was only a matter of time that ‘The Gentleman’ was going to secure victory which he eventually did on its conclusion with a decisive long red pot.
“I thoroughly enjoyed that match,” said Perry. “It was a good game, I felt comfortable, played probably as well as I have against John and I am absolutely delighted to beat somebody of John’s class.
“I felt comfortable and confident and stayed positive even when John threw some good stuff at me. I kept believing I was playing well enough to win, a few little things went my way towards the end and I capitalised.
“Sometimes you don’t really feel it but tonight from frame one I felt comfortable and positive. It didn’t mean I was going to win but my demeanour didn’t change even at 5-4 down.
“I will watch tomorrow’s group because my buddy Neil Robertson is playing and I will be routing him on. I normally watch snooker anyway but I will have more of a keen eye on it tomorrow.”
Perry will take keen interest in tomorrow’s Group 4 session as he will play the winner in Saturday’s semi-final.
The afternoon play that starts at 1pm sees the 2010 World champion from Australia Neil Robertson play Wellingborough’s Ruhr Open champion Rory McLeod, while another former world champion Shaun Murphy takes on the youngest player in the tournament 15-year-old from China Yan Bingtao.
The two winners then meet later at 7pm in a best of eleven frames encounter.
Tickets are available on the day, otherwise catch all the action on ITV4 from 12.45pm.
Picture courtesy of Matchroom Sport.