World No. 2 Judd Trump continued his impressive form, and his excellent start to the new season, with a 5-1 victory over Daniel Wells on Saturday in the Xian Grand Prix at the Quijian E-sports Centre. The chance for another title comes after his win in the Shanghai Masters, and he will play world champion Kyren Wilson for more than just bragging rights on Sunday in China.
Judd Trump beat Daniel Wells 5-1 in the second semi-final of the Xian Grand Prix on Saturday in China, becoming the new world No. 1 in the process.
A break of 65 was enough to spur Trump on in the first frame to go 1-0 up with a 95-5 scoreline as he looked to continue his good form after winning the Shanghai Masters.
In the second, a miss on the red to the middle-right pocket left Trump 69-8 up, but gave his opponent a slim chance of levelling the scores.
Wells made a decent fist of it in response, but fell two frames behind in the best-of-11 match-up as the world No. 2’s advantage was too much as he won 74-51.
With 68 on the board, Wells let Trump in on a score of one, but he swiftly returned to his seat as Wells came back to secure his first frame before the brief mid-session break.
An excellent 47 gave Trump the chance to attack the bunched reds, but instead he manoeuvred around the pack as he picked off some tougher options, and fell just short of a century break, on 96, when he failed to slide in a tough shot to the centre-right pocket.
Trump’s poor miss in the frame after the restart allowed Wells to come back in trailing 50-28, only for his own error on a long red giving his opponent a free ball, but Trump failed to take advantage for himself.
After some brief safety play, Wells rattled a green against the jaws, and with Trump needing just that and the brown to go 4-1 clear, he neatly dealt with both for victory.
He then rattled through his fifth successful frame to take him just one from victory with a 63 break inspiring him to 119-0, and the sixth was almost as simple, and he made 99 before missing a difficult brown to close out the match.
After the match, the WST confirmed that Trump is now the new world No.1, leapfrogging Mark Allen. Trump plays longtime rival Kyren Wilson in Sunday’s final.