Zhao and Allen complete semi-finals line-up at Players Championship

Reigning World Champion Zhao extended his winning streak on the professional circuit to seven matches as he dispatched Shaun Murphy, 6-3, during the afternoon session.

The 28-year-old from China produced a fine comeback victory in the opening round earlier in the week, recovering from three down with four to play as he ousted Elliot Slessor, 6-5.

Zhao took the first frame of his latest assignment with a break of 67 before Murphy - one of this season's standout performers - registered runs of 66 and 77 to nudge in front at 2-1.

Murphy looked like going through the gears but missed a relatively straightforward red whilst in the balls in frame three, and his opponent punished with a decisive 66 to go all-square into the mid-session interval.

On resumption, Zhao fashioned a purple patch with efforts of 142 - putting himself in pole position for the £10,000 tournament highest break bonus - and 95 in consecutive frames, before going one away from progression at 5-2 up.

British Open champion Murphy kept his hopes alive by taking frame eight, but Crucible king Zhao wrapped up the tie in style with a break of 118 - his 55th ton of the season.

Winner of the World Grand Prix less than a fortnight ago, Zhao is into back-to-back semi-finals on the circuit. His deep run in Hong Kong earlier this month qualified him for this tournament - at one stage his participation was looking extremely doubtful when he was 4-1 down to Mark Selby in the last 16 before winning 5-4.

This is only the second time that Zhao has competed in the Players Championship; he lost his opening match on debut in 2022.

Facing Zhao in the last four on Saturday will be Northern Ireland’s Allen, who saw off the in-form Selby, 6-2.

Former world number one Allen - who turns 40 on Sunday - was in fantastic scoring form as he crafted breaks of 70, 67, 53 and 74 in establishing a 4-0 interval lead.

When play resumed, Allen struck a 130 for 5-0, before reigning UK Champion and number two seed Selby rallied with contributions of 127 and 91.

But Allen extinguished any threat of a monumental comeback from his opponent by coming through a 55-minute-plus eighth frame on the colours after Selby was unfortunate to leave a freeball on the yellow.

Into his fifth ranking event semi-final of the campaign, this is a timely run for current English Open Champion Allen who is due £125,000 coming off his two-year ranking total for winning the title here in 2024. The prize money collected this week will also strengthen his place on the one-year/seasonal list, and therefore his prospects of qualifying for the 12-player Tour Championship in several weeks time.

Both semi-finals will be played on Saturday in Telford with world number one Judd Trump facing four-time world champion John Higgins from 13:00GMT, and Zhao sharing the baize with Allen from 19:00GMT. Both matches are the best of 11 frames.

To view the full draw, results, schedule, and other information from the 2026 Players Championship, visit here.