Judd Trump and Liang Wenbo will face off today in the final of the English Open at Event City in Manchester.
The pair had varying routes to the final with Trump beating Hawkins very easily, 6-2 in the afternoon session. Liang meanwhile played out a cracker of a contest with World number 2 Stuart Bingham that went all the way.
Despite winning the opener against Trump with a break of 64, Barry Hawkins never quite got back into the match after losing the next three and falling 3-1 behind at the interval, aided by a match high break of 88 in the third frame. A ton to make 2-3 was as good as it got for Hawkins who had a lot of trouble missing blacks off of the spot into the same corner pocket, doing it a number of times throughout the match. The crucial moment came in the seventh when Trump won a re-spot after Hawkins had had chances, and was looking to close to within a single frame once more. Another black ball frame in the eighth saw Trump make the vital shots and put himself in the final.
Liang and Bingham scored much heavier in the second semi-final with seven breaks of 50 or above from Liang and five 50+ contributions from Bingham. After a 50 from Bingham, Liang won the opener by coming back with a 58. 66 was enough for Bingham to level and he soon took the third to move in front. Liang hit back with 63 to take them into the interval all square, but runs of 95 and 89 from the 2015 World Champion saw him move two clear for the first time in the match at 4-2. In the next two frames Bingham then did not score a point as breaks of 74 and a marvellous 134 drew the scores level once more at 4-4. 116 from Bingham in the ninth put him 5-4 ahead and have two cracks at winning the match, but he did not have a scoring chance in either frame. A match high break of 138 from the Chinese number 2 forced the deciding frame. An early run of 61 in the decider put Liang nicely in front but not quite over the line, but when his next chance came an additional 53 was more than enough to put him into the final alongside Trump.
Final Schedule: (Best of 17 frame)
First Session: First 8 frames: 2pm UK time
Final Session: 7.30pm UK time
Today's winner between Judd Trump and Liang Wenbo will see the winner take home £70,000 and the new Steve Davis Trophy (which having seen it up close on Thursday looks like one of the better trophies on tour), while the loser will receive a very handy £30,000. If Liang wins it will get him into the Champion of Champions, and move up to 12 in the world rankings which would be a career high for the Chinese number 2. Victory for Trump meanwhile, will see him leapfrog losing semi-finalist Bingham into the number 2 spot in the rankings and of course it would be two titles in two weeks for him, and an overall earning of £126,250 for the fortnight.
Much like his route into the UK Championship final last December, Liang has had to come through a number of deciding frames and had his nerves tested to the maximum. He could easily have lost 4-3 to Shaun Murphy in the Last 64, and then again when playing Ben Woollaston in the Last 16 (which is probably what the celebratory slap of the face I witnessed was for). He had to dig very deep against Bingham but his best game came from that and he has been scoring superbly all week long with tough matches all the way from the start.
Judd Trump has made his week a lot more comfortable, with his only close game coming in Wednesday's Last 64 when he had a long wait before facing Jamie Bodle, coming from 2-0 and 3-2 behind to win 4-3. Since then wins of 4-1, 4-0, 5-1 and 6-2 have not tested him remotely but he should not have things all his own way against Liang, who will be much better for his experiences in that aforementioned UK Championship when he was very nervous and doing all sorts of strange twitching and movement with his body on some shots. He has certainly looked calmer this week, though the passion and big celebrations are still there and that is nice to see.
Over the best-of-17 frames this should be a brilliant match with plenty of power scoring and one to very much look forward to.
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