Judd Trump is the European Masters champion after getting the better of Ronnie O'Sullivan,9-8 in a pulsating final in Bucharist this evening.
A final between these two always comes with the promise that there might be something special in the offing and that is certainly what we got here in a free flowing exhibition of all that is good in the game.
This was Trumps sixth ranking title and its hard to believe any of the other would have given him as much satisfaction as this one did against an O'Sullivan playing near the top of his game, in fact is says a lot for Trump that despite what his opponent was producing,it was he who produced the bigger breaks.
Into the match itself and it looked early on as if it was going to be "one of those days"for Trump as after a few slices of bad fortune he somehow found himself 3-1 down at the first midsession interval & then 5-3 down at the end of the first session.
Trump though,with what seemed total faith in his game reeled off the first three of the night to lead 6-5.,before a 72 from Ronnie stopped the rot to level at 6-6.When Ronnie then also took the next two to lead 8-6,a 29th ranking title for O'Sullivan looked assured,but back came Trump with a 109,his third century of the day,to close to 8-7.
Into the next and on the flight home it is perhaps on this one that Ronnies mind will focus when he thinks about where he lost it.On three separate occasions here Ronnie knocked in cracking opening reds,but couldn't fashion any of them into the match winning chance he needed and Trump capitalised to level at 8-8.
Into the decider and it was Ronnie again who failed to capitalise from the opening chance,before Trump took full advantage of a missed long red .holding his nerve to construct a fabulous match winning break despite the black tied up in baulk..
When Trump burst on the professional scene in 2011,you would never have though it would take him until 2016 to win a sixth ranking title,but he has perhaps at times not shown the game or his talent the respect it deserves,hopefully now though we are looking a a mature young man who will go on the fulfill his full potential in the game.
As for Ronnie,although upset that he didn't win this,he will also probably be quite satisfied with his game that seemed to be getting sharper and sharper as the week with on. On the evidence of this there is little doubt that 29th ranking title is not far away.
This of course was the first ranking event held in Romania and after a week where the the crowds and enthusiasm just grew and grew I have no doubt we will be back here for many years to come.
Finally it would be remiss of me to let the day pass without mentioning the late great Paul Hunters,whose tenth anniversary occurs today.Its hard to believe with the way the game has gone in that time that he wouldn't have been by now probably a multiple world champion.Sadly that chance was robbed from him at a much too young an age.One thing for sure though is that he would have approved heartily of the swashbuckling way this final was played today.
We now move into a manic period of tournaments with the English Open starting in the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment