This time last year Judd Trump came into the world championship as the bookies favourite but failed to really get going.This season,after a few monthes of indifferent results,he has come in this week as almost the forgotten man and that may very well suit the world no.3.
Starting the second session today leading 6-3 he lost the first frame of the morning to Dale but quickly found his stride winning the next three with breaks of 104,73 and 61 to go 9-4 ahead.Dale managed to delay the inevitable winning the next but Trump sealed the victory in the 15th frame to win the match 10-5.
Trump talked afterwards about how much work he has put in ,in recent weeks preparing for this championship and time will tell if that work has paid off.It can certainly be said if he returned to the form he displayed in the International Championship,he will be a match for anyone.
Next up for Trump will be a second round clash with Marco Fu after the man from Hong Kong survived a real scare against Matthew Stevens.
Resuming today leading 6-3 Fu won three of the first four frame to move within one of victory.leading 9-4,Stevens though knows better then most that matches here are never over until they are over and started to fight his way back .Playing some of his best snooker of the match he clawed his way back,winning the next three to close to 9-7.
Things were now starting to get interesting but it was Fu who held his nerve to clear from the blue and win a 53 minute 17th frame to clinch the 10-7 win.
Sometimes the bare score doesn't tell the whole story and that was certainly the case yesterday when Ding emerged from his first session with Alan McManus with a 7-2 lead.That score was grossly unfair ti the Scot who played a lot better then that.Starting today he seem determined to set that right winning the first three frames of the day to close the deficit to 7-5.
In the first round last year Ding lead Ryan Day 9-6 only to lose the match and with that in mind he would have been relieved to stop the rot in the next making it 8-5.This seemed to knock the fight out of McManus and Ding won the next two to claim the 10-5 win.
For a while last night it looked as though we might have the possibility of a whitewash as Mark Selby lead Matt Selt. 5-0 despite not playing anywhere near his best.Selt managed to avoid that indignity and even started to play some good snooker closing to 6-3 at the end of the session.
That is how they started tonight and it looked like we may have a match on our hands when Selt won the opener to make it 6-4. Selby though wasn't going to let that happen and he slowly started to find his form to run out a 10-4 winner and set up a second round clash with the man who beat him here last year,Barry Hawkins
In the last two first round matches that have yet to be completed,Robert Milkins won the last two frames of session to keep himself well in touch with Neil Robertson,the Aussie holding a 5-4 lead going into tomorrow afternoons conclusion and barring a miracle Stuart Bingham will complete an easy win tomorrow evening when he resumes with an 8-1 lead over Sam Baird.
We have a rare free morning tomorrow with play not starting until 2-30 when as well as the conclusion of round one we have the beginning of round two With Shaun Murphy starting out against Graeme Dott and Michael White playing Dechawat Poomjaeng.Things are starting to take shape.
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