Judd Trump reached a 77th career ranking event semi-final on Friday with a resounding 5-0 victory over Mark Selby at the Shenzhen Open.
The showdown between the two Englishmen had been rightly billed as a heavyweight clash between two of the season’s most in-form players.
But the Shanghai Masters champion easily got the better of the China Open winner, with Trump whitewashing his opponent through breaks of 79, 77, 63, 52, and 51.
Although the 37 year-old recently surrendered his world number one position amid acquiring just one ranking title in almost two years, Trump remains an ever-present at the business end of tournaments.
Indeed, this is the fourth event in a row where he has reached at least the last eight – a stage where he believes his motivation to lift the trophy shifts into an extra gear.
“For me, when you’re in the quarter-finals onwards in a tournament, I think that’s when you really feel alive,” Trump told the World Snooker Tour.
“I think anything before that and you’re just trying to warm up and get to somewhere near your best.”
“I think from the quarter-finals onwards you can kind of see the winning line, and that’s normally when I raise my game.
“But yeah, the semi-finals are always that little bit more special. It’s normally down to one table at that point.
“All the attention is on you, and you can kind of see the finish line.”
Trump will face world champion Wu Yize on Saturday in what promises to be a grandstand affair between two of the best players in the game at present.
A big crowd will likely be in for that one, and helped by China’s Golden Week of holidays, attendances have generally been strong right throughout the week’s play.
“I think sometimes when the players play in the afternoon, you’re a little bit disappointed,” Trump said on his schedule with Selby.
“It’s normally a bit quieter. But with the holidays at the moment, I think the attendance has been superb for it being the first year.”
“When I walked out today I was pleasantly surprised how many people were out there.
“It can sometimes be a little bit hard to get up for it when it’s in the middle of the tournament, so it was nice to have that support out there and go out and play well in front of them.”
Wu will make his first appearance in the semi-finals of a ranking event since capturing the world title at the Crucible Theatre in May, meanwhile.
It was a familiar result for the 22 year-old on Friday, with Wu once again pipping Shaun Murphy in a deciding frame just as he did in the Sheffield final.
Trump and Wu most recently faced each other at the same round of the Shanghai Masters, with the former triumphing en route to securing the prestigious invitational title.
The first semi-final on the penultimate day will be between a pair of unlikely challengers in Yuan Sijun and Jimmy Robertson.
Yuan, bidding to claim a maiden ranking crown, ended the impressive run from veteran Michael Holt, while Robertson ousted Chris Wakelin.
Robertson and Yuan have encountered each other three times in the past, with the Englishman leading their head-to-head record 2-1.
2026 Shenzhen Open
Semi-Finals (bo11)
Saturday, Oct 3 – 07:00am BST
Yuan Sijun vs Jimmy Robertson
Saturday, Oct 3 – 12:30pm BST
Judd Trump vs Wu Yize
Featured photo credit: WST
