Trump was 3-1 up at the mid session before Higgins pulled it back to 3-3, then Trump pulled away to win 6-3, there were a few frames after the mid session interval that were surprisingly long and involved some intense safety battles
Not for the first time recently a Yan Bingtao match starts one day and finishes the next, this time he wins, it was 2-2 at the mid session interval before Bingtao pulled away into a 5-2 lead, Perry made a good comeback to force a decider which was a tight frame and came down to the black ball with just a couple of points in it and Bingtao potted it to take frame and match
Wow what a semi final that was, Trump was 3-0 ahead a cruising then Maguire won 5 frames in a row to go 5-3 ahead, Trump won the next 2 to force the decider, in the decider Maguire was in first with a 49 but ran out of position and played safe after a couple of safety shots Trump knocked in a wonderful red and cleared up to win frame and match
Semi final 1 is complete and Trump gets a day off and rests ahead of the final
Semi final 2 is tomorrow evening, if that goes to a decider it could easily go till 11 like tonight or even past midnight like Murphy v Bingtao did when they last met at the Welsh Open in the semi final, the winner then has the final the following day
The commentators mentioned that Bingtao is on his own this week, obviously no other Chinese players, but apparently there is noone else either normally the Chinese players travel with an entourage from the academy lol but guessing they have all stayed behind, Bingtao has apparently been seen at the restaurant and practice on his own.
I wonder if he is enjoying the freedom, its probably the only time he has had to himself since he has been over here, these academys are good but from what I can gather they eat together, practice together, travel together, some even live together and they probably never get time to themselves
The side note to this is Bingtao is now guaranteed to be 16th in the rankings possibly higher I havent done the maths, but minimum 16th with just Gibraltar to go before World Championship Qualifying
Gibraltar is now under threat, players where told today that its going to be monitored the next few days and a decision made.
If Gibraltar doesnt go ahead then Bingtao WILL be seeded for the World Championships
At 1-1 this looked like it was going to be a tight final not like the couple of runaway ones there have been recently, then Trump stormed away and and took a 6-1 lead, Bingtao managed to take the final frame of the session, to give him the faintest of hopes going into tonight
Championship league group 7 and winners group next 4 days but as usual with the Championship league I wont be updating as its short format and to much to keep on top off lol.
So a week off for me and I will hopefully return as long as there are no more Coronavirus issues next week when the Gibraltar Open hopefully goes ahead
Draw for Gibraltar Open is out and ROS did not enter.
Which means not including the 20 minutes of snooker he played at The Shootout, his last proper Snooker match was 14th February his next will be over 2 months later at the World Championships, no chance of tiredness or fatigue, if he is ever going to win another World Championship it will be this year(Personally still dont think he will)
Trump and Robertson are both in Gibraltar obviously, both players had an agreement to miss The Shootout and play in Gibraltar(they are 1 and 2 on the BetVictor European Series List, Robertson just needs to get to the final, Trump would have to win the even for the £150,000 bonus)
Havent quite worked out how I will be doing the updates yet for this next week, but probably wont be doing the opening 2 rounds as it starts with 245 players lol including alot of amateurs and with the event done over 4 days its very short format as well(best of 7s all the way)
No chance of tiredness but he won't be match sharp either. I don't know, but he looks almost like he is going to pack it in soon.
I get the match sharpness but I think back to when he had a year off a come back to win the World Championships in 2013, as I said I dont think he will, and I said a few year ago he wont win another world title, 17 days is to much for him.
But if he was ever gonna win another one its gonna be this year when he doesnt have the Players Championship and Tour Championship beforehand
I know I said I wasnt going to update The Championship League but what a crazy final group.
Neil Robertson went into today top with 3 wins from 3, Trump also had 3 wins from 3.
Robertson lost his opening 2 matches today and had to beat Scott Donaldson to qualify for the Semi Finals of the Winners Group, But Scott Donaldson won 3-1 and qualified instead.
Trump had won all 6 of his group matches and finished top of the group, so the Semi Final was
Trump v Donaldson McGill v Dott
Donaldson beat Trump 3-1 Dott beat McGill 3-2
This is Scott Donaldson first ever time in The Championship League and he is now in the final of the Winners Group
Comments
Quarter Finals
Judd Trump v John Higgins
Stephen Maguire v Mark Selby
Joe Perry v Yan Bingtao
Mark Allen v Shaun Murphy
Quarter Final
Result
Judd Trump 6-3 John Higgins
Trump was 3-1 up at the mid session before Higgins pulled it back to 3-3, then Trump pulled away to win 6-3, there were a few frames after the mid session interval that were surprisingly long and involved some intense safety battles
Quarter Final
Stephen Maguire 6-5 Mark Selby
Maguire was 4-1 Ahead before Selby pulled it back to 4-4 Maguire went 5-4 ahead and Selby forced a decider which was scrappy but Maguire won.
Maguire will now play Trump in the Semi Final
Paulie is not a happy Bunny! unlucky mate, sorry that's because of the Ronnie bashing a bit of banter.
Quarter Final
Result
Yan Bingtao 6-5 Joe Perry
Not for the first time recently a Yan Bingtao match starts one day and finishes the next, this time he wins, it was 2-2 at the mid session interval before Bingtao pulled away into a 5-2 lead, Perry made a good comeback to force a decider which was a tight frame and came down to the black ball with just a couple of points in it and Bingtao potted it to take frame and match
Quarter Final
Shaun Murphy 6-2 Mark Allen
Shaun Murphy eases into the Semi Final and is looking very good atm
Semi Finals
Judd Trump v Stephen Maguire
Yan Bingtao v Shaun Murphy
Semi Final
Judd Trump 6-5 Stephen Maguire
Wow what a semi final that was, Trump was 3-0 ahead a cruising then Maguire won 5 frames in a row to go 5-3 ahead, Trump won the next 2 to force the decider, in the decider Maguire was in first with a 49 but ran out of position and played safe after a couple of safety shots Trump knocked in a wonderful red and cleared up to win frame and match
Semi final 1 is complete and Trump gets a day off and rests ahead of the final
Semi final 2 is tomorrow evening, if that goes to a decider it could easily go till 11 like tonight or even past midnight like Murphy v Bingtao did when they last met at the Welsh Open in the semi final, the winner then has the final the following day
That said, if I had just won, the adrenaline and momentum would take over potentially, rather than nerves with the waiting around.
Semi Final
Yan Bingtao 6-1 Shaun Murphy
Well I didn't see that coming, a few mistakes by Murphy but a solid performance from Bingtao
Final
Judd Trump v Yan Bingtao
I wonder if he is enjoying the freedom, its probably the only time he has had to himself since he has been over here, these academys are good but from what I can gather they eat together, practice together, travel together, some even live together and they probably never get time to themselves
Gibraltar is now under threat, players where told today that its going to be monitored the next few days and a decision made.
If Gibraltar doesnt go ahead then Bingtao WILL be seeded for the World Championships
Final
End of 1ss session
Judd Trump 6-2 Yan Bingtao
At 1-1 this looked like it was going to be a tight final not like the couple of runaway ones there have been recently, then Trump stormed away and and took a 6-1 lead, Bingtao managed to take the final frame of the session, to give him the faintest of hopes going into tonight
Final
Judd Trump 10-4 Yan Bingtao
Yan came out and won the opening 2 frames of the evening to make it 6-4 but Trump won the next 4
Stephen Hendry 1990-1991
Ding Junhui 2013-2014
Mark Selby 2016-2017
Ronnie O'Sullivan 2017-2018
In winning 5 ranking events in one season, however there are still 3 ranking events left so he can overtake those and get the record in his own right
So a week off for me and I will hopefully return as long as there are no more Coronavirus issues next week when the Gibraltar Open hopefully goes ahead
Trumps and Ronnies both in 12
Selby was in 15 and Ding in 17 I think
Which means not including the 20 minutes of snooker he played at The Shootout, his last proper Snooker match was 14th February his next will be over 2 months later at the World Championships, no chance of tiredness or fatigue, if he is ever going to win another World Championship it will be this year(Personally still dont think he will)
Trump and Robertson are both in Gibraltar obviously, both players had an agreement to miss The Shootout and play in Gibraltar(they are 1 and 2 on the BetVictor European Series List, Robertson just needs to get to the final, Trump would have to win the even for the £150,000 bonus)
Havent quite worked out how I will be doing the updates yet for this next week, but probably wont be doing the opening 2 rounds as it starts with 245 players lol including alot of amateurs and with the event done over 4 days its very short format as well(best of 7s all the way)
But if he was ever gonna win another one its gonna be this year when he doesnt have the Players Championship and Tour Championship beforehand
Neil Robertson went into today top with 3 wins from 3, Trump also had 3 wins from 3.
Robertson lost his opening 2 matches today and had to beat Scott Donaldson to qualify for the Semi Finals of the Winners Group, But Scott Donaldson won 3-1 and qualified instead.
Trump had won all 6 of his group matches and finished top of the group, so the Semi Final was
Trump v Donaldson
McGill v Dott
Donaldson beat Trump 3-1
Dott beat McGill 3-2
This is Scott Donaldson first ever time in The Championship League and he is now in the final of the Winners Group