Anthony McGill remained on course for the greatest triumph of his career as he came from 3-2 down to beat John Higgins 6-3 in the semi-finals of the Unibet British Open.
McGill has two ranking titles to his name, at the 2016 Indian Open and 2017 Shoot Out, but the 34-year-old Glaswegian made it clear after today’s tie that victory in Cheltenham tomorrow would be the best moment of his life on the baize. He will meet Shaun Murphy or Mark Selby in the final, with first to ten frames to lift the Clive Everton Trophy and bank £100,000.
This week’s success is particularly sweet for McGill as his form and results had suffered over the past three years – indeed his previous ranking semi-final was at the 2022 Northern Ireland Open. He has slipped to 57th in the Johnstone’s Paint World Rankings – from a career high of 12 – and had even been in danger of relegation from the tour. But he is already guaranteed a boost of £45,000 and a return to the top 50.
Having turned 50 in May, four-time World Champion Higgins had hoped to become the oldest ever winner of a ranking title, but was outplayed today in the closing stages by his close friend and practice partner.
A cagey 30-minute opening frame came down to the colours and Higgins potted a tricky yellow but went in-off, handing McGill the chance to go 1-0 ahead. The second was resolved by a safety battle on the brown, Higgins converting an excellent long pot to create the opportunity to level the tie. A run of 62 gave Higgins the lead and he was among the balls first in frame four but missed a red to top corner on 16, letting McGill in for a break of 99 to make it 2-2 at the interval.
A superb 111 from Higgins gave him the fifth, then McGill dominated the next two with runs of 50 and 57 to lead 4-3. In frame eight, Higgins was on 13 when he was unlucky to knock a red in when splitting the pack off the blue, and his opponent punished him with an excellent 104 to go two up with three to play. Wishaw’s Higgins had an opportunity to pull one back but missed a red to centre on 37 in frame nine, and again McGill was clinical with a 93 clearance.
“It’s fantastic win for me because John is a legend,” said McGill, who is through to his fourth ranking final – the only one he lost was the 2017 Indian Open against Higgins. “This will be the biggest final of my career. I have had a lot of good wins at the Crucible but this would definitely top all of them. I wasn’t nervous today, I was really enjoying the occasion. I made a few mistakes, but tried to put them to the back of my mind and I felt good all the way through.
“I really want to compete in the final. Then if it doesn’t go my way, I’ll look back and it will be fine. But right now, I really want to end the week with the trophy in my hands. In the last couple of years I have won hardly any matches so this is a huge week for me.”
Higgins said: “Anthony hit the ball superbly well, like the way we all know he can. A big turning point was the fourth frame when I missed an unforgiveable red with the rest with the balls at my mercy. If I had gone 3-1 up I would have been in control. Then in the last frame I butchered a red to the middle, it was a horrible shot and I’ll leave the tournament with that in my mind. But every credit to Anthony, he finished the match off very well.“
Shaun Murphy is just one win away from ending a 26-month drought without a ranking title as he hammered defending champion Mark Selby 6-1 to reach the final of the Unibet British Open.
…
In one of the few events with a random draw, Murphy has been handed some tough assignments this week in Cheltenham but has knocked out the likes of Neil Robertson, Judd Trump and now Selby. The 43-year-old’s final challenge will be against Anthony McGill over a possible 19 frames on Sunday for the Clive Everton Trophy and £100,000 top prize.
Murphy will be aiming for the 13th ranking title of his career and first since the 2023 Championship League, although he has lifted major silverware in that time as he won the Johnstone’s Paint Masters earlier this year. World number 16 Murphy could become the first player to complete the ‘grand slam’ of tournaments televised by ITV having previous won the Champion of Champions, World Grand Prix, Players Championship and Tour Championship.
His previous meetings with McGill have included two at the Crucible – Murphy winning a 2015 quarter-final then McGill gaining revenge in the opening round in Sheffield the following year.
Each of the first two frames tonight came down to a safety battle on the final green, and both times Murphy came out on top as he went 2-0 ahead. He then compiled a break of 116 to extend his lead, before Selby responded with a run of 123. In frame five Selby was on 54 when he missed a red to a centre pocket, and he later botched a safety on the last red, gifting Murphy the chance to go 4-1 ahead.
Former World Champion Murphy led by 60 points with three reds left in frame six, before Selby clawed his way back, gaining 20 penalty points. However, four-time Crucible king Selby then missed an awkward yellow to a baulk corner, and Murphy eventually went 5-1 ahead. That ended Selby’s resistance as Murphy’s break of 93 secured a 27th ranking final.
“If you are going to beat Mark you have to take the game to him and score when you get chances,” said Murphy. “I’m reluctant to say I mixed it with him in the safety department because I had to ride my luck at times. But overall I’m delighted with the performance.
“I’ve had a very tough draw to get to the final but hopefully that hasn’t taken too much out of me. It has been a while since I won a ranking event so it would be nice to pick up another one. This event has a huge history going way back to when I was young, I came to watch it as a kid . It holds special memories for me and it would be lovely to take the trophy home.”
Selby, who beat John Higgins in the final here last year, said: “Shaun played great from start to finish. There were a few fifty-fifty frames I could have won which could have made a difference. I should have won the fifth to get back to 3-2 to get back of the match. But I wasn’t good enough and Shaun was very strong.”
I don’t have anything to add about yesterday’s action. For some reason I can’t really explain why but I find Anthony hard to watch. Still i really want him to win today …
Shaun has been at it again recently …IF, really, Ronnie has abused him verbally when he was 12, that is, of course, wrong, but Shaun doesn’t give any information regarding the circumstances nor about what was said.
The rest is nonsense. Ronnie has brought more fans to snooker than anybody else and, importantly, he’s done it during a period when snooker was truly in decline and really needed a boost. He’s done it under constant media scrutiny. He’s done it despite a very difficult family situation and his battles with depression and addictions. What more does he need to do? He’s not perfect, true, but nobody is. He’s not doing or saying the right things all the time, true, but nobody does. He’s human. Now, surely, that’s unforgivable …
4 thoughts on “The 2025 British Open – Day 6 – Semi-finals”
Also in Dave Hendon’s book, Shaun Murphy tells a quite distressing story about when he was 15, and had qualified for the tour. He was taken aside by an older player and told that he ‘had no right to be there’. But then of course, over 20 years later, he’s done almost exactly the same thing to Si Jiahui. It’s a classic case of retribution. He does this sort of thing quite regularly, and hasn’t seemed to learn that it will rebound on him – he just isn’t self-aware.
And he is arguably indulged in this as a result of his media work, which helps cancel out the possibility of criticism, should anybody from that world be minded to mete it out against him.
Djokovic is an interesting choice, as he is often controversial and divisive for fans as far as I know. 😏
Djokovic is someone who sticks to what he believes is right. He grew up in a country at war. He spent a lot of time away from his family as a youngster. That shaped him. But Djokovic’s “main fault” is not a fault at all. He just did his job to the best of his abilities. What happened is that he crashed the “Nadal v Federer party”, attracting “hate” from both camps. Federer is from Switzerland, a rich multicultural country, central to Western Europe, Nadal is from Spain, the country of conquistadores, their Kings amongst to most powerful monarchs for centuries. Serbia? Most people wouldn’t have been able to place it on a map, at best they would know there was or had been a war going on in the area… Djokovic didn’t “fit”. In a way Ronnie did something similar when he won the UK championship still aged only 17. He crashed the Davis/Hendry/Jimmy party … a boy who came from a not very honourable family, his father jailed for murder, his mother also doing time for tax fraud, himself battling addictions. He didn’t fit either, although for different reasons.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Also in Dave Hendon’s book, Shaun Murphy tells a quite distressing story about when he was 15, and had qualified for the tour. He was taken aside by an older player and told that he ‘had no right to be there’. But then of course, over 20 years later, he’s done almost exactly the same thing to Si Jiahui. It’s a classic case of retribution. He does this sort of thing quite regularly, and hasn’t seemed to learn that it will rebound on him – he just isn’t self-aware.
And he is arguably indulged in this as a result of his media work, which helps cancel out the possibility of criticism, should anybody from that world be minded to mete it out against him.
Djokovic is an interesting choice, as he is often controversial and divisive for fans as far as I know. 😏
Djokovic is someone who sticks to what he believes is right. He grew up in a country at war. He spent a lot of time away from his family as a youngster. That shaped him. But Djokovic’s “main fault” is not a fault at all. He just did his job to the best of his abilities. What happened is that he crashed the “Nadal v Federer party”, attracting “hate” from both camps. Federer is from Switzerland, a rich multicultural country, central to Western Europe, Nadal is from Spain, the country of conquistadores, their Kings amongst to most powerful monarchs for centuries. Serbia? Most people wouldn’t have been able to place it on a map, at best they would know there was or had been a war going on in the area… Djokovic didn’t “fit”. In a way Ronnie did something similar when he won the UK championship still aged only 17. He crashed the Davis/Hendry/Jimmy party … a boy who came from a not very honourable family, his father jailed for murder, his mother also doing time for tax fraud, himself battling addictions. He didn’t fit either, although for different reasons.