• The Masters

Trump slumps to Dott defeat

Judd Trump was out of sorts, again, against Graeme Dott © PA Photos

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Judd Trump failed to reach the semi-finals of a major tournament for the second time in little over a month after losing 6-1 to Graeme Dott in the quarter-finals of The Masters.

Trump, the world No. 2, was completely outplayed by Dott and the result follows his first-round exit at the UK Championship last month, when he was the defending champion.

Trump did not look in the best of shape in the first round here either and needed all 11 frames, and a healthy dose of luck, to beat Barry Hawkins.

Dott himself had scraped through his first match against fellow Scot Stephen Maguire, winning 6-5, but gave a more convincing account of himself against the 23-year-old.

The 35-year-old won the first two frames before Trump struck back with his only frame of the match. Later, with the scores at 4-1, he had a chance to add a second but Dott made a break of 54 to steal it away. The world No. 12 then made a run of 111 to seal victory and a place in the semi-finals for the first time.

"I have not really had any form for the last four to five months," Dott said. "I have been struggling and I am not cueing very well, but I am slowly getting there.

"Luckily for me, Judd did not show up. You expect him to play well and sometimes when someone doesn't play well, it affects your game. I seemed to struggle too. It is unusual for Judd to play as bad as that, but I was happy for this match to be a tactical one."

Dott will now face world No. 1 Mark Selby, who beat two-time world champion Mark Williams 6-1. Selby had fought back from 5-1 down in his opening match against Stuart Bingham, but he was far more comfortable on Friday in a match of dire quality.

All four of the opening frames went the way of Selby, two of which were settled by less than nine points in a scrappy contest. Williams emerged from the mid-session interval to pull one back, but a break of 73 - the only score of note in the match - took Selby to within a frame of victory, before a run of 30 fittingly sealed the win.

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