Scotland’s Eden Sharav will be hoping to make his first ever ranking semi-final on Friday when he takes on England’s Peter Ebdon in the Northern Ireland Open. The 28-year-old reached his first quarter-final on Wednesday after he recorded two impressive wins in Belfast.

Sharav opened his account for the tournament by beating Li Yuan, before he then saw off Michael White. Joe Swail then fell victim to a 4-2 defeat, but Sharav was eventually put through his paces by Allister Carter.

Carter stormed into a 3-1 lead, but he failed to get the job done and lost 4-3.

Carter now faces a fight to get into the Race to the Masters, which includes just the top 16 players.

Sharav has impressed in recent weeks at the English Open and International Championship but he remains the 2.50 outsider.

Ebdon beat Li Hang 4-1 on Thursday and he remains 1.50 favourite for Friday’s contest.

England’s Judd Trump is also in action after he managed to beat Belgium’s Luca Brecel 4-2. Trump had already overcome Matthew Selt, Stuart Carrington and Jack Lisowski but he showed plenty of heart to down Brecel.

‘The Ace in the Pack’ was 2-1 down but rattled off 316 points to win without a reply from the Belgian. His reward will now be a clash with Wales’ Ryan Day after the latter beat Andrew Higginson 4-0.

Day is a 2.60 outsider, with Trump the favourite at odds of 1.50.