Judd Trump – ‘It’s pleasing coming through a decider’

Judd Trump won the last two frames to beat Jimmy Robertson 4-3 in the third round of the English Open on Wednesday.

Trump, a former English Open champion, dug deep to sustain his aspirations of securing a 24th career ranking title.

The Englishman emerged with the prestigious invitational Masters title last season at the Alexandra Palace.

Yet you have to go back to March in 2022 for his most recent success in a ranking tournament.

An appearance in the final of the European Masters earlier this season proved that he is currently in decent form, but he’ll be hoping to go one better this week in Brentwood.

“It’s always pleasing coming through a decider,” Judd Trump told the World Snooker Tour.

“I lost a close one in the last tournament, and I’ve won quite a few already this season before that.”

“It definitely brings extra pressure. It’s kind of a 50-50 shot in a decider, you take a lot of satisfaction out of it.

“If you can get through the scrappy frames or get through the decider, a lot of the times people go on and win the tournament, or (you can) at least put yourself in a position to do that.”

Elsewhere, there were several other interesting results as the draw for the last 16 began to take shape.

Ricky Walden miraculously fought back from 3-0 down, including recovering from a snookers required stage in frame four, to beat Graeme Dott in a decider.

There was another 4-3 scoreline in the match involving Hossein Vafaei and He Guoqiang.

The latter has already secured final-frame triumphs over Kyren Wilson, Barry Hawkins, and Ryan Day this season.

He duly added Vafaei, last week’s British Open semi-finalist, to that list – the rookie continuing his fine start to life on the main tour.

It was much more comfortable for John Higgins, who recorded a resounding 4-0 success over Mark Davis to reach round four.

Mark Allen bowed out, however, following a 4-2 reverse to Matthew Selt that ended the Pistol’s attempt to become world number one for another week.

Stephen Maguire was downed by Martin O’Donnell, who backed up his standout victory over reigning English Open champion Mark Selby with another defeat of a star name.

Yuan Sijun and Oliver Lines were the others to progress from the round of 32 after respective defeats of Robert Milkins and Cao Yupeng.

Earlier on day three in what is the fourth ranking event of the 2023/24 snooker season, the remaining fixtures from the last 64 took place.

Among those to make it through were world number one Ronnie O’Sullivan and Sunday’s British Open champion Mark Williams.

O’Sullivan compiled a hat-trick of century breaks in an eye-catching 4-1 victory over Jackson Page, while Williams won the last three frames to edge Xiao Guodong 4-3.

There will be another hectic day of action on Thursday with the English Open field being whittled down to its final eight contenders.

English Open draw

2023 ENGLISH OPEN DRAW

Round of 128

(held over fixtures)

Mark Selby 4-1 Xing Zihao
Ryan Day 4-2 Ashley Hugill
John Higgins 4-3 Marco Fu
Kyren Wilson 3-4 Oliver Lines
Judd Trump 4-0 Sean O’Sullivan
Robert Milkins 4-1 Robbie Williams
Barry Hawkins 4-1 Anthony Hamilton
Mark Allen 4-0 Mostafa Dorgham
Ronnie O’Sullivan 4-0 Andrew Pagett
Jack Lisowski 4-1 Matthew Stevens
Elliot Slessor 4-2 Ryan Davies
Ali Carter 4-1 Jamie Clarke
Neil Robertson 2-4 Sanderson Lam
Shaun Murphy 3-4 Liu Hongyu
Mark Williams 4-0 Ian Burns
Ding Junhui 4-3 Ma Hailong
Luca Brecel 4-3 Stan Moody

Round of 64

Mark Selby 2-4 Martin O’Donnell
Stephen Maguire 4-2 Louis Heathcote
Ryan Day 3-4 He Guoqiang
Hossein Vafaei 4-3 Julien Leclercq
David Lilley 2-4 Mark Davis
James Cahill 2-4 John Higgins
Cao Yupeng 4-0 David Gilbert
Martin Gould 1-4 Oliver Lines

Judd Trump 4-1 Scott Donaldson
Jimmy Robertson 4-3 Allan Taylor
Robert Milkins 4-3 Adam Duffy
Tom Ford 2-4 Yuan Sijun
Hammad Miah 2-4 Ricky Walden
Graeme Dott 4-2 Barry Hawkins
Michael White 3-4 Matthew Selt
Wu Yize 1-4 Mark Allen

Ronnie O’Sullivan 4-1 Jackson Page
Si Jiahui 4-0 Fergal O’Brien
Jack Lisowski 3-4 Elliot Slessor
Anthony McGill 1-4 Zhang Anda
Lukas Kleckers 1-4 Jenson Kendrick
Liam Pullen 0-4 Ali Carter
Andrew Higginson 2-4 Zhou Yuelong
Stuart Carrington 0-4 Sanderson Lam

Liu Hongyu 4-1 Joe O’Connor
Chris Wakelin 4-1 Jamie Jones
Mark Williams 4-3 Xiao Guodong
Dylan Emery 4-1 Oliver Brown
Dominic Dale 3-4 Gary Wilson
David Grace 1-4 Ding Junhui
Muhammad Asif 4-3 Fan Zhengyi
Andy Hicks 1-4 Luca Brecel

Round of 32

Martin O’Donnell 4-1 Stephen Maguire
He Guoqiang 4-3 Hossein Vafaei
Mark Davis 0-4 John Higgins
Cao Yupeng 2-4 Oliver Lines

Judd Trump 4-3 Jimmy Robertson
Robert Milkins 1-4 Yuan Sijun
Ricky Walden 4-3 Graeme Dott
Matthew Selt 4-2 Mark Allen

Ronnie O’Sullivan 4-2 Si Jiahui
Elliot Slessor 1-4 Zhang Anda
Jenson Kendrick 0-4 Ali Carter
Zhou Yuelong 4-0 Sanderson Lam

Liu Hongyu 4-3 Chris Wakelin
Mark Williams 4-2 Dylan Emery
Gary Wilson 2-4 Ding Junhui
Muhammad Asif 0-4 Luca Brecel

Round of 16

Martin O’Donnell 4-2 He Guoqiang
John Higgins 4-1 Oliver Lines
Judd Trump 4-2 Yuan Sijun
Ricky Walden 3-4 Matthew Selt

Ronnie O’Sullivan 2-4 Zhang Anda
Ali Carter 1-4 Zhou Yuelong
Liu Hongyu 4-3 Mark Williams
Ding Junhui 4-3 Luca Brecel

Quarter-Finals

Martin O’Donnell 1-5 John Higgins
Judd Trump 5-1 Matthew Selt

Zhang Anda 5-4 Zhou Yuelong
Liu Hongyu 5-2 Ding Junhui

Semi-Finals

John Higgins 5-6 Judd Trump
Zhang Anda 6-2 Liu Hongyu

Final

Judd Trump 9-7 Zhang Anda

Featured photo credit: WST