Judd Trump held off a Mark Selby fightback to win 6-3 and earn his place in the semi-finals of the MrQ UK Championship in York.
Victory sees player of the season so far Trump remain in the hunt to dethrone Ronnie O’Sullivan and move to the top in the world rankings. Trump will claim the world number one spot if he wins his semi-final with Ding Junhui tomorrow and O’Sullivan is beaten in his last four clash with Hossein Vafaei.
The Ace in the Pack has already enjoyed a remarkable campaign, having become only the fifth player in snooker history to capture three consecutive ranking titles. Trump won successive silverware at the English Open, Northern Ireland Open and Wuhan Open. He was also runner-up to Mark Allen at the recent Champion of Champions. The 26-time ranking event winner is aiming to capture a second UK title this week. He won the event back in 2011 with a 10-8 win over Allen.
Defeat means that despite some strong showings, 22-time ranking event winner Selby will have to wait for his first title of the season. The Jester from Leicester was runner-up to Mark Williams at the British Open and lost semi-finals at the Shanghai Masters and European Masters.
Trump blitzed to a 4-0 lead this evening, making breaks of 100, 93 and 52 along the way. Selby replied by taking the fourth, but it was Trump who moved to the verge of victory with a run of 95 to make it 5-1.
Selby dug deep and took the seventh, before making 98 to pull within two frames at 5-3. However, Trump wasn’t to be denied and he took the ninth to get over the line and make his first semi-final in York since 2014.
“Whenever you have a big lead you are always relieved to get over the line. Especially when someone looks like they are back in form, like when he went 5-3. A lot of relief to get the win,” said 2019 World Champion Trump.
“It is horrible against anyone when you have that kind of lead. Unless you are really flying, you always feel like they can come back at you. Especially when there have already been shocks in the tournament, you don’t want to be added to that list.
“It is going to be amazing to be back in a semi-final here. It has already been a brilliant season, but until you prove yourself in these really big events then you can easily get forgotten about. You want to be delivering on the big stage as much as possible. It is nice to do it in some of the other events, but a lot of people watch these that don’t watch the other ones so it is nice to go out there and prove it again.”
Ding earned his place in the semi-finals with a thrilling 6-5 win over Welshman Mark Williams.
China’s Ding is a three-time UK Champion, having 2005, 2009 and 2019. His win this evening sees him move within two matches of a fourth title in the event and also secures his place in the top 16 for the upcoming Masters.
With Ding leading 4-3, the pair were involved in a landmark frame. Williams won the eighth by a scoreline of 101-94, making it the highest scoring frame in snooker history. The 195 accumulative points beat the previous record of 192 set by Dominic Dale and Peter Lines.
Williams took the next to make it 5-4, before Ding restored parity and forced a decider. Both players spurned chances in the final frame, but it was Ding who eventually fired in a century break of 105 to seal victory.
