• Australian Open

Robertson marches through to semi-finals

Neil Robertson is on course to win the first two ranking events of the season © Getty Images

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Neil Robertson continued his perfect start to the season after the former world champion defeated Robert Milkins 5-2 in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.

Robertson secured the Wuxi Classic title last week and now needs just two wins to seal the first two ranking events of the season, and to claim the title at his home tournament for the first time.

"Robert beat me at the World Championship last year so I know how good he is," Robertson said. "I didn't score heavily enough when I had the chances so 5-2 was a bit flattering because it could easily have gone 3-3. I didn't play as well as yesterday. The table was really nice to play on but it was a bit too quick off the cushions and I lost position a couple of times because of that.

"The most important thing is to win - it's really pleasing when you play your best, but you can't do that all the time. I'm really proud to be into the weekend stage here."

Elsewhere, Stuart Bingham and Mark Davis played out an entertaining encounter, with Davis emerging 5-4 winner. The match saw 10 breaks of 50 or more in just nine frames, while there was never more than a frame between the two men.

Bingham won the title in 2011 but victory for Davis means he now has the chance to go through to a ranking final for the first time in his career.

"The standard was good, there were only a few balls missed," Davis said. "In the last frame I left him a long red which he had to go for - if he had potted it he probably would have won. But he missed and left me perfect. So it was all on that shot really, even though I still had to make sure I took the balls to win.

Earlier, Matthew Stevens lost out to Xiao Guodong 2-5, while Judd Trump came through a close meeting with Ricky Walden to win 5-4.

Trump will now meet Guodong in the first semi-final, while Robertson will take on Davis in the second semi on Saturday.

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