Judd Trump and Mark Selby will meet in the 2025 Champion of Champions final on Sunday with the £150,000 top prize up for grabs in Leicester.
The pair of Englishmen reached the title-deciding affair with a couple of 6-2 victories in the semi-finals, with Trump beating Zhao Xintong and Selby overcoming Neil Robertson.
For the latter, it marks the first time that he has made a Champion of Champions final despite having appeared at every edition since its launch in 2013.
Selby has oddly struggled to reproduce his best stuff in the tournament in the past, but this week the Leicester lad has enjoyed home advantage while playing at the Mattioli Arena.
“It’s special to reach the final here at home in Leicester,” the world number 11 said. “But I’m not done yet. Tomorrow, I’ll be giving everything to lift that trophy.”
It has been a vastly different scenario for Trump, who has predominantly found himself featuring at the latter stages of the invitational competition in the past.
Indeed, this run represents Trump’s sixth to a final, although he has only once previously translated that into success and lifting the trophy aloft.
Despite suffering from below-par form amid the change he has made with his cue, the world number one will have an opportunity to improve on that record.
Reaching the Champion of Champions final also gives Trump the chance to win a tournament for the first time this calendar year.
It’s a stretch dating back to his last victory at the 2024 UK Championship, remarkable considering the Bristol potter’s propensity to regularly emerge with silverware in recent years.
Trump came close to breaking that duck a few weeks ago but narrowly missed out on glory at the Northern Ireland Open where he lost in a 9-8 final to Jack Lisowski.
Even though he is not in the form of his life, it’s a testament to how strongly he has developed his game that he can still challenge for the top honours.
“I’m happy that I’m in the final, because I’m not at 100%. I’m probably at about 10%,” the 36 year-old said after his defeat of world champion Zhao.
“So to make a final in a tournament like this when I’m not at my best and I don’t feel that comfortable, I can take a lot of credit.”
Selby, meanwhile, already has two titles under his belt from 2025, albeit both of those were won in the early part of the year and at the back end of last season.
The Jester prevailed in the Welsh Open in addition to the invitational version of Championship League Snooker, which was staged at the same venue as this week’s tournament in Leicester.
Either way, whoever manages to triumph on Sunday will extend the strange statistic during the ongoing 2025/26 campaign that has seen every event on the calendar won by a different player.
Champions in the 2025/26 season so far:
Championship League Snooker – Stephen Maguire
Shanghai Masters – Kyren Wilson
Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters – Neil Robertson
Wuhan Open – Xiao Guodong
English Open – Mark Allen
British Open – Shaun Murphy
Xi’an Grand Prix – Mark Williams
Northern Ireland Open – Jack Lisowski
International Championship – Wu Yize
Trump and Selby have clashed 41 times in all competitions with the former boasting the superior head-to-head record at 23-18, and the margin is similar even when short-format games are excluded.
Considering they have both been at the very top of the sport for 15 years or longer, it is a surprise that they have not faced off against each other in more finals.
In fact, this is only the second time that it will happen and the first was way back at the 2011 China Open when Trump bagged his maiden ranking title with a 10-8 scoreline.
Their most recent meeting was at the other prestigious invitational tournament that was staged this season, with Selby edging Trump 6-4 in the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters.
There is every chance that this showdown could be just as tight as those two, but it’s a hard one to predict with neither contender necessarily at the peak of their powers.
For one of them, though, victory will provide a timely boost in confidence ahead of some important weeks on the calendar – the UK Championship and the Masters both on the horizon.
The 2025 Champion of Champions final between Judd Trump and Mark Selby will take place over 19 frames and two sessions, starting at 1pm and 7pm UTC/GMT.
2025 Champion of Champions Schedule
Monday
Group 2
Shaun Murphy 1-4 Lei Peifan
Judd Trump 4-1 Bai Yulu
Group Final
Lei Peifan 2-6 Judd Trump
Tuesday
Group 3
Kyren Wilson 4-3 Jack Lisowski
Mark Allen 0-4 Zhao Xintong
Group Final
Kyren Wilson 5-6 Zhao Xintong
Wednesday
Group 1
Mark Williams 4-0 Alfie Burden
Mark Selby 4-0 Stephen Maguire
Group Final
Mark Williams 5-6 Mark Selby
Thursday
Group 4
Neil Robertson 4-1 Tom Ford
John Higgins 4-3 Xiao Guodong
Group Final
Neil Robertson 6-4 John Higgins
Friday
Semi-Final
Judd Trump 6-2 Zhao Xintong
Saturday
Semi-Final
Mark Selby 6-2 Neil Robertson
Sunday
Final
Judd Trump vs Mark Selby
Featured image credit: Champion of Champions
