Ken Doherty and Shaun Murphy will meet in today’s Malta Cup Snooker final, after winning their respective semi-finals yesterday.

Ken Doherty upset favourite and world champion John Higgins 6-2, whilst in the second semi-final, Shaun Murphy made a remarkable comeback to beat Ding Junhui 6-5.

John Higgins won the first frame 66-1 thanks to 52 point break. Ken Doherty equalised by winning the second frame 77-19, making a break of 76.

Ken Doherty took only ten minutes to claim the third frame 90-0, with a 90-point break. In the fourth frame before the interval Ken Doherty was even faster as he took nine minutes and 52 seconds to win 71-0, with a good 70-point break.

On the resumption Higgins regained lost ground winning a hard fought fifth frame 61-18. But Ken Doherty soon re-established his two-frame lead winning the sixth frame in style.

Doherty made a century break of 118 points to claim the frame 119-0. The seventh frame was again well balanced with Doherty making a 59-point break to win the frame 75-19.

The eighth frame was the most balanced frame with Higgins building a good lead thanks to a break of 39 points. But Ken Doherty made a break of 56 points to win the frame 58-39, and win the match 6-2 to reach today’s final.

The Chinese Junhui won the first three frames 60-6, 79-0, and 104-0 but Murphy made a comeback winning the next two frames 71-19 and 68-1.

In the sixth frame Ding Junhui re-established his two-frame lead winning the frame. Murphy pulled one back winning 58-50 a tense seventh frame, and equalised winning frame number eight 76-0.

Junhui re-took the lead winning the ninth frame 64-48, but Murphy equalised winning the tenth frame 116-1. In the last frame Murphy kept his calm to win the frame 92-8 with a 75-point break.