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Rory McIlroyMatt York

Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood set up a mouth-watering semi-final duel at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship when they each completed comfortable victories in Saturday's quarter-finals.

World number two McIlroy never trailed before beating South Korean Bae Sang-moon 3 and 2 while third-ranked Westwood won 4 and 2 against Scotsman Martin Laird at Dove Mountain's Ritz-Carlton Golf Club.

It's the first time the semi-finals have featured two of the top four seeds since 2004.

Either McIlroy or Westwood can depose Luke Donald as world number one by winning Sunday's final, adding extra spice to their semi-final encounter on Sunday morning.

"This is why we practise, this is why we work so hard," McIlroy said after reaching his first Match Play semi-final in four appearances. "You want to try to beat the best.

"I'll really enjoy out there tomorrow morning battling away and obviously trying to beat Lee. It's the match that most people wanted and definitely the match that I wanted."

Westwood already has been No. 1 in the world, and said his priority is picking up his first WGC title. McIlroy already is a major champion, having won at Congressional last summer in the U.S. Open, and would become at 22 the second-youngest player behind Woods to reach No. 1 in the world.

McIlroy, aiming to become the youngest ever Match Play champion, piled up six birdies to keep continual pressure on PGA rookie Bae, who had ousted 2010 winner Ian Poulter and Masters champion Charl Schwartzel in earlier rounds.

Westwood, who had never trailed in his previous three matches this week, was one down after five holes before winning four of the next five to take control.

"I played solidly," said the Briton. "I didn't make a bogey. ... Five under par is solid golf."

Hunter Mahan became the first to reach the semifinals, manhandling Matt Kuchar 6 and 5 to equal the third most lopsided quarter-final win in Match Play history.

Coming off a nine birdie performance on Friday, Mahan didn't pick up his first birdie until the ninth hole today but by then he was already 5-up thanks to four bogeys from Kuchar, who finished third a year ago by winning the consolation final.

"He's a great player and a great putter. I just got lucky today," said Mahan who made a three foot birdie putt on the 13th hole to win the match after Kuchar had chipped to within five inches for a conceded birdie.

"It's tough after a beating like that," Kuchar said. "Golf beats you up a lot. You have got to be able to put these things behind you. I didn't have my best stuff and got beaten badly."

Since being pushed to extra holes by Zach Johnson on day one, Mahan has not trailed in a match since the third hole of round two against Y.E. Yang.

Mahan will face fellow American Mark Wilson in the second semifinal after Wilson rolled in an eight-footer for birdie at the 15th hole to beat Peter Hanson 4 and 3.

Wilson made just three birdies on the day but Hanson helped him with four bogeys including back-to-back on Nos. 10 and 11 to go 2-down. Coming into the match, the Swede had made a total of three bogeys over the last three days.

The matchups assure an American will reach the championship match for the first time since Tiger Woods won in 2008.

(Files from the Associated Press and Reuters were used in this report)

HOW OUR EXPERTS FARED...Through four rounds of play, Jeff Brooke has correctly predicted 39 of 60 matches so far while Lorne Rubenstein is right behind him, picking 36 matches correctly. Here's how they fared Saturday:





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