A jaded Barry Hawkins must now play catch up in his World Snooker Championship semi-final as Shaun Murphy opened up a 6-2 advantage on Thursday afternoon.

Following his quarter-final victory over Anthony McGill, Murphy said he had no preference as to whether he played Neil Robertson or Hawkins in the semi-final, just as long as their last-eight clash became a 25-frame epic.

He got his wish and Hawkins, back on the table after his late night 13-12 win, was way off the pace.

The prolific break-building we have come to expect from the 36-year-old at the Crucible over the last three years was lacking and, despite getting in each time, he surrendered the first three frames to Murphy.

The 2005 world champion looked set to win a fourth in a row, but in the process of potting a blue into the middle he flicked a red into the corner pocket to bring Hawkins back to the table.

The Hawk had a 20 per cent long pot success rate in the first four frames, yet carved out a break of 30 to lead by two points with only the black left on the table, but he lost position after sinking the pink.

He missed an attempted cut with the rest and the Magician looked like he was going to make him pay when he saw the black disappear, yet the white rolled in with it to the disbelief of both players.

Resuming with a 3-1 lead after the mid-session interval there was no let up from Murphy, who rolled in a fine break of 105.

Hawkins was looking comfortable in frame six until his bow tie came undone and needed the assistance of Dutch referee Jan Verhaas to retie it. However, his break of 69 proved good enough to reduce the arrears to 4-2.

But Murphy has been the most consistent of any of the semi-finalists in the last 13 days and, after Hawkins left his break off short, the Nottingham star made a 138 clearance.

The outcome of the final frame of the session would be pivotal to the mood of both players overnight, but the nature of the way it played out would have had Hawkins kicking himself.

After making a break of 50, Murphy responded with an exceptional clearance of 79 to take a four-frame lead.

They will resume play at 10am on Friday.

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