Judd Trump played some sublime snooker on the second day of the Champion of Champions event in Coventry, dropping just two frames on the way to his group 4 victory, booking his place in Saturday's semi-finals beating Mark Selby 6-1 in the group final. Things started off well for Mark Selby in the group semi-finals beating Steve Davis, while Judd Trump was in a dominating mood from the start of his match with Stephen Maguire where he ran out a 4-1 winner. In the interviews he completed afterwards for ITV4 he seemed to have matured a great deal and has admitted that he's been putting in a lot more practice over the last few months having "slacked off" for the 2 or so years previous, and now he wants to reap the rewards of this work. It has to be said if he plays like he did yesterday over the weekend he'll be a big favourite for the tournament, because he looked like he could've beaten anyone put in front of him.
Group Semi-Finals
Mark Selby 4-1 Steve Davis - The match started off well for Mark Selby as he dominated the opening frame to take the lead, but Steve soon drew level in the match by taking a second frame in which both players had chances to win it, and to get on the board would've made Steve feel a lot better. Mark was soon back in front though with the first 50+ break of the match, a 68, giving him the third frame and making it 2-1. Selby dominated the next frame as well without Davis scoring a point to go one away from victory and the evening's group final at 3-1. Steve's best break of the match came in the fifth frame with a break of 53 giving him the chance to perhaps force another frame but a superb clearance of 64 from Mark gave him the frame and the match, 4-1.
Judd Trump 4-1 Stephen Maguire - If you're a Stephen Maguire fan there's not much to say about your man in this match as he was dominated pretty much from start to finish. Judd Trump took the opening frame with a break of 82, while he doubled his lead by taking the second frame with the days first century, a 106. An early 37 had Maguire under pressure, and when he missed a mid-range red having been cold on table time for two and a half frames it was no surprise to see Trump knock in an outrageous red and make a 66 break from it to go 3-0 ahead in very quick time, without Maguire potting a single ball in the match so far. Stephen did eventually pot a ball in the fourth frame but didn't look like potting many as a break of 55 from Judd put him very to getting over the line, however a clearance of 40 from Maguire allowed him to steal the frame by 2 points on the black and extend the match at 1-3. It wasn't extended by much though as Maguire was whitewashed again in the fifth and final frame as a run of 89 from Top Trump put him into the group final with a 4-1 win
Group Final:
Judd Trump 6-1 Mark Selby - Mark looked like he was playing well early on, getting in first in the opening frame with a break of 53, but good safety and long potting from Trump as he'd shown earlier on, allowed him to get back into the frame and win it on the pink to move 1-0 ahead. Judd soon doubled that lead by winning the key safety battle in frame two as Mark failed to take his earlier chances once more and things were already looking dangerous for Mark being 2-0 down to a player in this kind of form. The world champion soon steadied the ship in the third by dominating that frame and closing the gap at 1-2. From here though Judd completely shut Selby out, as the man from Leicester only scored a further 12 points in the match. It took Trump two chances to close out frame four but he did close it out and Selby already looked in huge trouble when he went into the mid-session break 3-1 behind. It didn't get any better from there as Mark was shut completely out of the next two frames as breaks of 68 and 70 helped Trump along to a 5-1 advantage, one away from a place in Saturday's semi-finals. As you'd expect from a player of Judd's class in the form he was in yesterday, he finished the match off in style in the seventh frame with the highest break of the match, the group and the tournament so far knocking in a 119 to win the match 6-1 and sending Selby home, wondering what he really did wrong in that encounter.
Having made into the semi-finals now, Trump has three full days off before his match on Saturday where he will play the winner of Friday's group 2 involving Neil Robertson, Ali Carter, Mark Allen and Ricky Walden.
As for today though we have group 1 of the Champion of Champions involving defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan who takes on Stuart Bingham in the group semi-finals in a repeat of last years final, while Shaun Murphy plays Marco Fu straight afterwards with the two winners facing off across the best-of-11 frames in the evening. If you want to see my full preview, with a preview of todays group 1 and Friday's group 2 then it can be found here:
cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/champion-of-champions-preview.html
I'll be back tomorrow with a round-up of that group, and it should be a good one looking at the four guys involved.
No comments:
Post a Comment