Northern Ireland Open: Judd Trump reveals why Ronnie O’Sullivan is his biggest snooker rival ahead of record title bid

At the age of 34, Trump feels his main rivals in the sport remain ‘Class of ’92’ icons Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Williams because there is nobody to challenge him from his own generation.

World No. 1 O’Sullivan remains top of the all-time list with 61 ranking event final appearances and 39 victories.

“I feel like I’m kind of a little bit on my own in my age group. I feel like I’m going at my own pace,” 25-time ranking event winner Trump told Eurosport on Saturday night.

“There’s nobody at my own age to bring me on, in a way. I’m still looking at Ronnie, John and Mark Williams for the rivalries.

“But I’m not doing too bad, keep ticking over.”

Trump has won the English Open and Wuhan Open in his past two tournaments and is looking to emulate the feat of Ding who claimed the Shanghai Masters, Indian Open and International Championship in 2013.

“Ding’s about your age, isn’t he?” said O’Sullivan during his post-match analysis. “But he hasn’t really kicked on. I know what Judd is saying. He’s the only serial winner out there in his age category that’s doing the business really.”

World No. 25 and Shoot Out champion Wakelin completed a resounding 6-1 win over Jack Lisowski to reach the final earlier on Saturday with his opponent failing to register a point in the final three frames.

Wakelin has lost all 11 of his previous meetings with Trump, including an agonising 5-4 defeat in the last 32 of the European Masters in August from 4-0 ahead.

Trump is favourite to claim the Alex Higgins Trophy for a fourth time in the past six years with Wakelin an outside shot.

“On paper, everyone will think I’m favourite, but he probably played better today than I did,” said Trump. “He’s played well all week.

“I’m going to have to be on top of my game to win this one.”