Judd Trump and Stuart Bingham to contest Belgium final

Judd Trump and Stuart Bingham will face off in the final of the European Masters after each overcoming Chinese opposition in Saturday's semi-finals.

Trump was the first man into the final, after defeating Cao Yupeng 6-1 while Bingham followed with a much harder fought 6-4 victory against Zhou Yuelong, with both Zhou and Cao making the semi-finals of a ranking event for the first time.

Defending champion Trump was in fantastic form in the afternoon, winning six frames in a row after losing the opener to Cao, who looked good himself early on with a 63 break to take that opening frame. The man seeded as low as 84 coming to Lommel was in early in frame two before an unfortunate foul from his split of the reds left Trump in. A run of 61 made sure that the left-hander made the most of this opportunity, and he quickly hammered home this advantage with a century in the third frame to move ahead. His good scoring continued by contributing 63 in the fourth frame on the way to taking a 3-1 mid-session interval advantage.

There is much more time to recover in a best-of-11 from 1-3 behind but Trump was determined to continue pulling away, having watched his 3-0 lead disappear in Friday's quarter-final with Mark Allen. In the blink of an eye a two frame gap became four with further power scoring shutting Cao out of the match. Magnificent breaks of 87 and 115 put Trump 5-1 ahead and within a frame of victory, and although he needed a couple of chances in frame seven it was not long at all before he was over the line and into ranking final number 16 of his career.

Meanwhile, Stuart Bingham came through a real battle with Zhou Yuelong in match that he had to fight very hard in to get through. After taking the opener convincingly he then lost the next two to breaks of 54 and 101 from Zhou. The 2015 world champion was far from his best in doing so, but was able to take the frames either side of the interval to regain the lead at 3-2, despite a highest break that was only in the mid-forties at this stage.

In a pendulum swinging match, Zhou then took command again after grinding out the next two frames, winning both on the colours to put himself in front for a second time at 4-3. From there though, things did not quite happen for the teenager as he appeared to tighten up a little in the closing stages. Bingham's highest break of the match came in frame eight, as he squared the contest up with the assist of a 68 break, and he was again the stronger player in frame nine to move ahead for a third time at 5-4. The tenth and ultimately final frame was another pendulum swinging affair. Bingham was in first and built up a 40 point advantage before Zhou's chance came and he made 54 to edge ahead with three reds left on the table. The killer blow came when the Chinese player took on a difficult long red and in missing, left all three reds on for the Bingham clearance. With victory confirmed, Bingham let out a big fist pump to show what it meant to be back in another ranking final, where he will be targeting his fifth major ranking title.

THE FINAL: (Best of 17 frames) 

Judd Trump Vs Stuart Bingham


Defending champion Trump will go off favourite in his quest to be back-to-back European Masters winner, especially given the comprehensive performance in his semi-final victory. By no means should Bingham be ruled out though, many of his major achievements have come against the odds and Trump has been on the receiving end of that a few times already.

Just a few months ago at the Welsh Open Trump would have again been favourite as faced Bingham in the Cardiff finale, and despite clawing back a 4-0 deficit he would ultimately fall 9-8 in a very tense finish. Then again of course in 2015 Trump fell to Bingham 17-16 in the semi-finals of a World Championship that Ballrun would go on to win for his greatest achievement. Bingham has also seen off Trump in other major clashes with a 7-2 victory in the final of the 2012 Premier League, as well as a 6-2 win in the quarter-finals of the inaugural Champion of Champions where Bingham would finish runner-up. Therefore, Bingham has certainly had the best of Trump in the head-to-head in recent times.

While Bingham may not have been at his best in the semi-finals, his victories in the two rounds beforehand against Mark Selby and Luca Brecel where he scored nicely and looked in great form, show that things are starting to pick up for him after a slow start to the season. Trump though has played solidly all week and scored as well as he always seems to, as well as showing great character to hold on against Mark Allen, as well as coming through another decider against Martin O'Donnell.

Overall, with the head to head and this weeks form this is a very tough final to call and it should be another great meeting between the pair tomorrow over two sessions.