The Champion of Champions final today at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry will be played out by Ronnie O'Sullivan and Judd Trump in their first meeting since the 2013 World Championship semi-finals. Ronnie overcame Ding Junhui while Trump beat Neil Robertson on a day of fantastic snooker, and with a final like this it should be another great day of snooker to come today in this best-of-19 final. It will be interesting to see what the arena is like noise wise for the afternoon session of the final with Coventry playing an FA Cup tie at home this afternoon also. On Wednesday night fireworks could be heard clearly from inside the arena, and a noisy football crowd can certainly turn the volume up a few notches, though it shouldn't really affect the players.
Back to yesterdays action and Ronnie O'Sullivan saw off Ding Junhui in the afternoon semi-final. Ronnie won three of the first 4 frames to take a 3-1 mid-session interval lead but at this stage O'Sullivan hadn't made a break above 50 and the highest break of the match so far was a 51 from Ding. The Chinaman started to get going after the break and came out firing with breaks of 88 and 111 to square the match up at 3-3. What was Ronnie's response? Well it was a big one as he went back in front at 4-3 with a break of 105. Ding stuck in there and levelled again at 4-4 to keep the pressure on Ronnie, but he handled it in style winning the last two frames with breaks of 91 and 125 to wrap up the match in superb style with two more sublime breaks.
With Ronnie into the final then, it was Robertson and Trump who were going head to head in the evening for the right to join him in the final. Neil Robertson took the opening frame of the match with a run of 65 while Judd dominated the second frame to make it 1 apiece. Both of the next tow frames were close with Judd winning frame three on the black before Robertson gave him a scare before the interval by getting close to making the two snookers he needed on the pink, but at the break it was 3-1 to Trump. It was a hard fought match after the mid-session interval, but incredibly gripping. Robertson pulled a frame back at 2-3 only for Trump to retake his two frame advantage at 4-2. Neil dominated the seventh to close the gap again but a 56, Judd's highest break of the match, in frame eight put him a frame from the final at 5-3. The Australian wasn't going away though, and he put the pressure on Trump with a sublime 117 to close to within a frame at 4-5. Judd made a break of 51 in the tenth frame but that wasn't quite enough for him to seal it and the frame went down to the colours. There was some fantastic safety played by both players on the pink and black, with Robertson hardly getting a sight at either ball with a pot on either taking us into a decider. Eventually, after a few missed long attempts at it, Judd stroked in a long black and booked his place in the final after winning a hard fought semi-final 6-4.
Final Preview:
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Judd Trump - This should be a cracking final between two players that have exactly the same attacking, quick, heavy scoring style of play and they will both set out to entertain over this beat of 19 today. Judd breezed past Stephen Maguire and Mark Selby playing some of the best snooker I've seen him play in a very long time, but as I said in my preview of the semi-finals, the three days he had off killed that momentum and he relied heavily on his improved safety game to put Neil under pressure because at times Trump missed some blacks off of the spot which Robertson didn't punish him for but Ronnie certainly will today. The other worry for fans of Judd is that he says he lost his confidence through the Neil Robertson match and that he wasn't confident for this final against Ronnie. If O'Sullivan heard that and watched Judd's head go down against Neil he'll be rubbing his hands. Trump can't afford to show Ronnie any kind of weakness early in this match, because frustration and this lack of confidence certainly came across last night and if it does today Ronnie will walk all over him like he has hundreds of opponents in the past. Ronnie however will be extremely confident given his performances on Wednesday against Stuart Bingham and Marco Fu, as well as the way he carried himself yesterday and responded when Ding put him under heavy pressure as Stuart did on Wednesday. Sometimes pressure would get to Ronnie but this week he certainly seems to have responded and found strength from these positions. He's been inspired by a venue he enjoys and big crowds in support of him this week and I think that will push him on to defending his Champion of Champions title.
Prediction: Ronnie O'Sullivan to win 10-6
It's been another really enjoyable week of snooker this week and I've had great fun watching it all unfold and I'm really looking forward to seeing what today's final produces. I've got a couple of nice pieces to come over the next few weeks on the blog, while there is a near two week break after this until the European Tour 4 Ruhr Open.
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