Zhang Anda secured safe passage to his first final of a ranking event when getting the better of fellow Chinese player Liu Hongyu 6-2 in the semi-finals of the English Open.
The 31-year-old turned professional in the 2009/10 season, but has never got the results to match his talent – his best performance being a quarter-final at the Welsh Open in 2022.
Trump will be a big obstacle for ”Mighty Mouse’, but Zhang is looking to cause problems for the former world champion.
“I am feeling good,” Zhang said in the Eurosport studio.
“I play Judd and can play well and want to make trouble for him,” he added with a broad smile on his face.
“I want to keep going, to do better in the final. I have confidence.”
Liu opened with a fluke, as he did the previous evening in his win over Ding, and his first contribution in a ranking semi-final was a run of 35 before breaking down.
The first miss was not costly for Liu, but the black off the spot that followed a short while later was as Zhang picked off a run of 59 to draw first blood.
Zhang got in first with a break of 38 in the second, but his split of the reds was not kind. There did not look an obvious safety, leading to him taking on a tough red to left middle which did not drop.
Liu replied with 54, but he failed to get on the final red. The youngster’s inexperienced showed in a safety battle as he failed to get the object ball safe and Zhang knocked it into the yellow pocket.
He did not drop on a colour but laid a fiendish snooker which enabled him to craft a chance and secure the second frame.
In his quarter-final, Liu potted some sensational balls but also made mistakes. Ding did not punish those mistakes, but Zhang was a far sharper opponent and he took the third after Liu had made 29 before missing a makeable red.
Zhang took the fourth to sweep the session, but was fortunate to do so. Liu worked a lead and later in the frame was unfortunate to see a well-struck red wriggle in the jaws of the green pocket and stay out.
Zhang did not take the chance that followed – looking shaky for the first time in the contest – and was fortunate to leave Liu in a snooker when missing the blue.
Liu made the escape, but pushed it over the right-middle, allowing Zhang to knock in blue and pink to take a four-frame lead.
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Zhang emerged from the interval and played a series of poor safety shots, to suggest the thought of a ranking final was on his mind, and Liu was able to get a frame on the board.
After his dalliance with safeties in the previous frame, Zhang knocked in a couple of excellent pots at the start of the sixth and made 52 before inexplicably missing a straight pink.
He returned to his chair with a perplexed look on his face, but it was not costly as Liu did not drop on a colour from a red.
A couple of poor shot choices from Zhang followed, as the thought of the winning line clouded the mind. But he took on a brave red when it presented itself, and followed up with an excellent pink and another red as he closed to within one frame of the final.
After some turgid passages of play, Liu produced his most fluent snooker of the match – killing off the seventh frame in 11 minutes with a 67 to keep his hopes alive.
Having been kept cold in the seventh, Zhang opened the eighth with a fine long pot and made 31 but knocked in a red when opening the pack off the blue to add a twist.
Liu could never get the clear opening he craved, and after missing a tough pink with the rest, Zhang stepped in to wrap up the win and a meeting with Trump over two sessions in Sunday’s final.
