Shaun Murphy feels his game is improving match by match after moving through to the Scottish Open semi-finals with a 5-0 thrashing of Sam Baird.

It has been a tough season for the 36-year-old Englishman as he has struggled for consistency but he was far too good for Baird, compiling runs of 63 and 122 to complete the whitewash in Glasgow.

The 2005 world champion reached the semi-finals of the Champion of Champions in November but has failed to make it past the third round of a ranking event in 2018.

He is now into the last four at the Emirates Arena and will take on Judd Trump, who claimed the Northern Ireland Open last month.

Trump, who took care of Stuart Carrington in his quarter-final, is favourite at 1.44 while Murphy can be backed at 2.63 to reach the final and the man from Harlow feels his game is trending in the right direction.

“I feel like with each match this week I’ve got progressively better,” he told Eurosport. “And I thought were it not for a few poor positional shots in the first four frames that would have been a real good shot.

“I mean any win’s a good win for me the way my season’s been going, so I’m thrilled to still be here.”

Murphy made four finals last season in the ranking events but failed to win any of them, taking the Champion of Champions as a consolation but he appears to be in the right frame of mind to get the job done north of the border.