Judd Trump. Picture by Monique Limbos

JUDD Trump and Ding Junhui remain the hot two favourites to land this year’s German Masters title after they sailed through to the semi-finals.

Trump continued his fine form this week after thrashing Michael Holt 5-0 in a match lasting just more than an hour.

It is the first time Trump has made the last four stage of a major ranking event since May last year when he lost to Ronnie O’Sullivan in the World Championship. And he’s done it in impressive style losing just three frames in the four matches he has played this week.

The Bristol star will reach his first German Masters final should he beat 42-year-old Rod Lawler on Saturday.

Lawler, ranked 50 in the world, reached his first major semi-final since 1996 after he came through a nine-frame thriller beating Mark Davis 5-4.

It was, incredibly, Lawler’s second final frame decider of the day after earlier beating Tian Pengfei to reach the quarter-finals.

Ding Junhui’s hopes of claiming a fourth major ranking title this season were boosted when he beat Joe Perry 5-2 to reach the semi-finals.

Ding hit five breaks of more than 50 including a top break of 107 as he ended another impressive tournament run this season from Perry.

The Shanghai Masters, Indian Open and International Championship winner will face Welshman Ryan Day for a place in Sunday’s final.

Day sealed his first major ranking semi-final since the 2009 China Open knocking out Xiao Guodong in a 5-2 win.