A super Saturday is in store at the Alexandra Palace with two stellar semi-finals to look forward to on the 2025 Masters schedule.
The prestigious tournament in London has already provided a wonderful week of snooker, but the business end of proceedings is still to come.
Three former Masters winners and the reigning world champion make up a fearsome foursome on the penultimate day.
Let’s take a look at both semi-final clashes in the 2025 Masters draw.
2025 Masters semi-finals
Shaun Murphy vs Mark Allen
All eyes will be on the pre-match handshake to see if either Shaun Murphy or Mark Allen offer any tell on the current status of their friendship.
For years, the pair had openly enjoyed a rapport with one another, but there has been obvious tension in the air of late.
Murphy and Allen have been embroiled in a mini war of words on various topics over the course of the last few months.
What initially was regarded as banter appeared to simmer over into something a bit more, with Allen labeling Murphy a “yes man” and calling his views “irrelevant”.
Both players have this week admitted to sharing a difference of opinion on various topics, with Allen even saying that, although he still respects Murphy, he doesn’t consider the Magician a friend any more.
It provides a subplot to an exciting showdown that could be easily billed merely through their respective pedigrees within the game.
Both Murphy and Allen are ex-Masters champions, with the former’s 2015 success representing his last at a Triple Crown event.
Allen’s triumph seven years ago provided the catalyst for him to become a more consistent champion on the World Snooker Tour.
They each produced strong displays to record 6-2 defeats of Neil Robertson and Mark Selby in the quarter-finals respectively.
Murphy boasts a superior head-to-head record with 15 wins to Allen’s nine in all competitions, but their paths haven’t crossed in almost three years.
In their eight previous semi-final clashes, the Magician has come out on top on six occasions.
This version of Allen is markedly different to the one Murphy last played at the 2022 German Masters, however.
The Pistol has developed the tactical side of his game, and when he mixes that with his traditional scoring power, he is a tough player to beat.
Murphy performed brilliantly against Robertson, but this season’s Shanghai Masters runner-up has frequently struggled to substantiate one strong performance with another in the past.
The combination of those factors perhaps makes Allen the slight favourite, but the opening last-four fixture on Saturday’s Masters schedule promises to be a bruising battle.
When is it? Saturday, January 18th at 1pm
Judd Trump vs Kyren Wilson
The second encounter on the Masters semi-finals schedule for Saturday pits world number one Judd Trump against world number two Kyren Wilson.
While Allen and Murphy’s rivalry has been established on potential animosity, the rivalry between Trump and Wilson is founded on their repeated showdowns at the business end of competitions of late.
The pair of Englishmen clashed five times in 2024, and on four of those occasions the winning player went on to claim the tournament’s silverware.
Two of those battles were in finals, of course, with Wilson overcoming Trump to capture both the Xi-an Grand Prix and the Northern Ireland Open crowns.
Trump, though, beat his countryman in the World Open and the UK Championship en route to successes in those respective events.
The 35 year-old boasts the superior head-to-head record overall but will be well aware of the threat that Wilson possesses.
The latter emerged from a dramatic tussle with Luca Brecel 6-4 on Friday evening to sustain his hopes of lifting the Paul Hunter Trophy for the first time.
Trump earlier produced a clinical finish to his affair with Ding Junhui, stringing together the last five frames in lightning fashion to stun the Chinese competitor 6-3.
By reaching the semi-finals and with lucrative tournament wins in his back pocket this season, Trump has already broken the record for prize money in a single campaign.
He will obviously have a third Masters title as his primary target this week, though, and victory over Wilson would offer another nod to his status as the world’s best player at present.
If it can deliver, the battle between the two most recent Triple Crown champions promises to be a special occasion in front of a boisterous Ally Pally crowd.
When is it? Saturday, January 18th at 7pm
For the full 2025 Masters snooker draw and schedule, click here.
Featured photo credit: WST
