Judd Trump reached the final of the Tour Championship for the first time with a tremendous 10-4 win over Neil Robertson in Manchester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After racing into a 6-0 lead, Trump eased past the winning line to boost his hopes of a second ranking title within two months having won the German Masters in February. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He will meet John Higgins or Zhao Xintong for the trophy and \u00a3150,000 top prize over 19 frames on Sunday, and victory would guarantee that he’ll remain world number one going into next season regardless of what happens at the World Championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bristol’s 36-year-old Trump is into his fourth ranking final of the season and 53rd of his career. He’s aiming for a 32nd ranking title, which would leave him only one behind Higgins on the all-time list. The left-hander had not even won a match in the Tour Championship for six years before this week, but having knocked out Mark Allen, Shaun Murphy and Robertson he is on the brink of landing one of the few trophies which have so far eluded him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump built a 7-1 lead in the first session with top breaks of 87, 94, 113, 54 and 58. The opening frame tonight came down to a safety battle on the green and Trump missed a tough pot to a centre pocket, handing an opening to Robertson to slot in the green from distance and clear to pull one back. The Australian added further respectability to the scoreline by taking frame ten with a top run of 40. However Trump dominated the next two with breaks of 87 and 75 to lead 9-3 at the interval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Robertson – who was number one seed for this event as the top player in the Sportsbet.io One Year Rankings – pulled one back with a run of 50 and had chances in frame 14, notably missing the blue to a baulk corner after potting the last red. He then made a safety error on the yellow, gifting Trump the chance to make a fine clearance including a tough long green.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I have not played well in this event before so it’s nice to come here this week to a great arena and put that right,”\u00a0said Trump, who has reached at least the semi-finals in nine of his last 11 tournaments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I have played good stuff at times this week and there’s still stuff to improve on. Neil and I have had a lot of deciders over the years. I never expected it to be comfortable today but I got off to a really good start. After that I dropped my standard a bit but I had done all the damage.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I have had a brilliant season, since Northern Ireland in October I have probably been the most consistent player with the most semis and finals. I have been close to my best at times, I have just chucked away a couple of semi-finals against John Higgins. You can’t choose how you are going to play, sometimes you don’t play your best and win events. You just have to enjoy it when it happens. Sunday will be special whether I play John or Zhao, it will be an exciting match and a great atmosphere.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Robertson said: “I was garbage, the whole match. He started off very well but after that we were both absolutely shocking, I probably brought him down. When I get involved in safety I am just not good enough at this level to compete. That’s why my record in the World Championship is so bad. Players don’t really play thick safeties against me, they just wait until I play a terrible safety, and invariably that comes along. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I have got to sort it out. I have to either go flat all-out attack in Sheffield or I’ve got to try to find some kind of safety game that works. I can’t keep going there with an ‘in between’ way of creating chances. My scoring and long potting is being wasted because I am not creating chances. I have felt this for a long time, I used to take pride in grinding out frames but it’s not really how I want to play. I competed well with Barry Hawkins yesterday, that was a good sign. But today Judd hardly had to pot a single tough long red to get in. At 7-1 tonight my form just wasn’t there to make it closer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I am trying, it’s not like I mean to misplace the balls. I will have to talk to Joe (Perry) about it because I can’t pretend to be as good as Selby or Higgins in the safety department, it’s not my game, so I need to do something. Players are too good now, no one collapses on TV or gives you easy chances. Me getting in through a long red with my hand on the table doesn’t happen as much. It’s got nothing to do with bottle, it’s about chance creation.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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