Judd Trump has captured the first European Masters crown and his sixth professional ranking title by beating Ronnie O’Sullivan in a 9-8 thriller in Bucharest.
The first session was closely fought, with Ronnie hitting three half-centuries and Trump a century. However, Trump was unfortunate to go behind, despite having a superior safety and long pot success rate than his opponent by the end of the session, though he should’ve won the first frame but Ronnie took advantage of his poor safety on the green. After returning to the circle 5-3 down, Trump rallied three frames in a row to go 6-5 up. After missing a simple blue, the Rocket replied in a similar fashion to gain an 8-6 lead. It looked as though he was going to clinch the title, but after potting the green as well as a red on the same shot, Trump was able to make a fantastic clearance under pressure of 109, including a fantastic blue to the top-left corner that would’ve lost him the title had he missed. After that, Judd dominated, making a final break of 74 to breathe a sigh of relief before shaking Ronnie’s hand.
During the final frame, the commentators mentioned that this title is Trump’s biggest achievement to date, despite winning the 2011 UK Championship and the 2012 International Championship. They said that “to beat O’Sullivan the way O’Sullivan has played, the way Judd had to play to beat him from 8-6 down – what an achievement.” I happen to agree, but not just because Judd came from behind to beat Ronnie as he had done this before at the 2015 World Grand Prix. He has not won a ranking final on a decider before and lost three times that way (2012 Shanghai Masters; 2014 UK Championship; 2015 Shanghai Masters) and has won just 46.63% of deciders in his career, according to CueTracker to date. This is as well as beating three world champions along the way, coming from behind three times against Ben Woollaston, and got three centuries and three half-centuries against O’Sullivan, outscoring him in the process.
This tournament has been a success. There has been a number of big names as well as younger players like Scott Donaldson and Rhys Clark making an impression in front of a knowledgeable and enthusiastic crowd. But this hasn’t been without controversies.
A few viewers and bloggers refused to watch the event because it took place in a circus, which many associate this with stage performers being cruel to animals, treating them appallingly and forcing them to perform circus acts against their will. Snooker-wise, there is a lot of criticism on Twitter (who would’ve thought of all places, eh?) on ringmaster Marcel Eckardt (see what I did there). Marcel told Anthony McGill off for playing too slow on certain shots in his quarter-final, leading him to be called ‘clueless’ by McGill and former pro, Marcus Campbell. The referee was criticised since McGill isn’t even thought of as a slow player. Though I haven’t seen the match and heard mixed messages on if he was playing slow or not, it wasn’t an official warning and at least he had the guts to say so, especially when there is a huge demand for faster play or even a shot-clock after performances of Rod Lawler, Fergal O’Brien and the like (which I think is silly, but that is for another day!) It sounds like the wrong call at the wrong time, but I cannot say for certain.
Trump admitted he was relieved to win, especially when he should’ve gone 7-5 up, but he showed his maturity and has now moved up to third in the snooker rankings. Both he and O’Sullivan should go into the English Open with a lot of confidence, which only starts tomorrow and will be against Ken Doherty and Jimmy Robertson respectively in the hunt for the Steve Davis Trophy. I am glad they started naming trophies after legends of the games such as he, Ray Reardon, Alex Higgins and Stephen Hendry. It shows that World Snooker has not forgotten the golden era before Barry Hearn and of course, has made these Home Nations events a lot more prestigious than I initially thought.
For more information on the draw of the English Open, please follow this link: http://www.worldsnooker.com/english-open-draw-and-format/
