Judd Trump dominated the Champion of Champions final, beating John Higgins 10-4 to claim the 2021 title in Bolton on Sunday evening.
It’s the Englishman’s first success in the prestigious invitational after previously finishing runner-up in 2014 and 2019, with the world number two pocketing the top prize worth £150,000.
Early on in the 2021 Champion of Champions title decider, it had appeared as though Trump was going to have his work cut out for him.
Higgins, a winner of this tournament five years ago at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, compiled a break of 73 in the first frame and added the next two for an initial 3-0 advantage.
Trump, however, got on the scoreboard in the fourth frame, and after the mid-session interval the 32 year-old reeled off another four on the spin to lead 5-3.
Higgins managed to clinch the last frame of the opening session to reduce the gap to just one, but the Wizard of Wishaw couldn’t stay in the game upon the evening’s resumption of play.
Trump contributed breaks of 74, 68, 59, and 51 as he comfortably reached the required ten frames, consigning Higgins to a third straight final defeat this season.
The latter had been hoping to bounce back from his recent second-place finishes in both the Northern Ireland and English Opens, but while he got to within one frame of glory on each of those occasions, the 46 year-old never really threatened this time.
For Trump, the former world champion lost only five frames across the entire tournament and silenced some of the doubters who questioned his pedigree on the bigger stages.
Trump has been by far the most prolific winner on the Main Tour in the last three years, so it’s a little strange that he finds himself in a position in which he has to defend himself.
But this dominant Champion of Champions triumph in 2021 will help to remind the critics that he is indeed the best player in the world right now, regardless of what the official world rankings may suggest.
Featured photo credit: @ChampofChamps
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Trump is still the main man and people forget he won some Chinese events that are certainly on a par with this event. What is fair to say is that Trump, or nobody else, has taken a strong grip on 2021. He, Neil Robertson and Mark Williams are the three players with two tournament wins this year. Wouldn’t be surprised if this win signalled a burst of success, though.
The one-sided final was in keeping with a tournament lacking in drama and, to a lesser extent, quality. I found it baffling to read those involved in snooker claiming how great a week it was. It feels these days broadcasters -not just in snooker -have to say every tournament is fantastic.
I should add some of those involved. Talking Snooker’s Nick Metcalfe did tweet the evening sessions had been lacking in entertainment.
A very good and dominating performance from Judd Trump and I think the start of great things to come, with the likes of Trump, Robertson, Selby it’s probably a true statement from Higgins that his best days are behind him, and sad to say but the same goes for Ronnie but hey they have both had amazing careers and as they say you can’t turn back the passage of time it comes to all of us.
Higgins is not past it. He might not produce his best as regularly but we saw at the Player’s Championship his A-game can compete with anyone, including Trump.
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