Northern Ireland Open: Jack Lisowski sweeps past Ricky Walden to reach semi-finals, Barry Hawkins downs David Gilbert

Jack Lisowski cruised into the Northern Ireland Open semi-finals with a commanding 5-1 win over Ricky Walden.

It was a clinical performance from Lisowski, who enjoyed a 98% pot success rate and was playing with supreme confidence in Belfast.

It was a case of what might have been for Walden, as he worked his way into some promising openings, but saw his mistakes ruthlessly punished.

The contest enthralled from the start, as Lisowski snatched the opening frame from Walden’s grasp with a timely break of 42, potting the final three colours after Walden missed a costly red.

Walden responded in stunning fashion though, with his 354th career century and his ninth of the season with a sensational break of 132.

Walden agonisingly missed a red along the top cushion to ultimately steer frame three in Lisowski’s favour, and he built up a lead of 50 points with only 35 left on the table.

Once he potted a long red himself, Lisowski restored his advantage.

Walden missed a red to the bottom pocket, which had he potted it, would have left Lisowski needing snookers to turn the frame around.

However, Lisowski would make him rue that miss, clearing up the table for a 128 clearance for his 17th century of the season to go 3-1 up.

Walden then missed a routine pink to the middle pocket in frame five, as Lisowski stepped up and took it after potting the brown and clearing the table in a break of 81, moving one frame away from the last four.

A much cagier fifth frame saw Lisowski’s safety game to the fore, as he set a trap for Walden and subsequently left himself with a nicely spread pack of reds.

He progressed through those with aplomb and finished with a clearance of 73 to wrap up a comprehensive win.

An appearance in the last four awaits, where he will meet either Chris Wakelin or Yuan Sijun in pursuit of a first career ranking title.

Barry Hawkins battled past an inspired David Gilbert to reach the last four in Belfast.

Hawkins began the match in style in what was the 50th century of the week, with a sublime clearance of 134, the highlight being a cross double on the red with the break at 89.

A tight 27-minute second frame followed, ending with Gilbert restoring parity after sinking a long red and punishing ‘the Hawk’ for a failed cannon earlier on.

After Gilbert missed a red to the middle pocket, Hawkins sealed the frame by sinking the black to the bottom pocket and worked his way to a 91 clearance that ended with the yellow rattling around the jaws of the top pocket.

Hawkins was showing fine control of the cue ball after capitalising on a poor safety shot and took a 3-1 interval lead by nailing the black to the bottom pocket and cleared the table with a stunning break of 138.

Gilbert reduced the deficit at 3-2 with a break of 58, as he released the black quite brilliantly after Hawkins fell victim to his safety shot.

Left with plenty of reds to attack following a period of to-and-fro, Hawkins wrapped up a convincing fourth frame to move within one of victory, a break of 66 getting the job done.

He threw everything at a careless long red in the next frame and missed, which allowed Gilbert to step up to the table to remain in contention of a comeback.

A tactical 26-minute battle ensued, with Hawkins chasing two snookers following Gilbert’s break of 66, and it finally went the way to the latter who saw the frame out after the former’s safety blunder.

What followed was rather impressive, as Gilbert completed the comeback with a dominant break of 114 to force a decider in Belfast.

However, Hawkins’ quality shone through in the closing frame as Gilbert’s entertaining fightback was abruptly ended when he missed a long red, leaving the table wide open for the world No. 14 to wrap up a deserved win.

Hawkins will face Judd Trump or Stephen Maguire in the semi-finals.