Juddernaut Too Strong For Whirlwind
Judd Trump surged to a comfortable 4-0 whitewash of ten-time ranking event winner Jimmy White in under an hour to progress to the last 64 of the BetVictor Scottish Open in Glasgow.
Trump is enjoying a strong run of form, having scored a sensational 9-7 win over Ronnie O’Sullivan in the final of the recent BetVictor Northern Ireland Open. However, he did succumb to a narrow 6-4 loss against Joe Perry in the last 16 of the UK Championship last week.
The last time Trump locked horns with the legendary White in a ranking event was at the 2012 China Open, where he came out a 5-3 victor.
This evening’s match was a more comfortable victory. Trump rattled off four frames in just 45 minutes, composing breaks of 73, 61 and 73 on his way to the win.
Trump said: “I played some good stuff at times. Jimmy was always finishing in slightly awkward positions. The table may have been playing a bit differently to what he is used to, as he isn’t on TV as much these days.
“My game is there, you can’t win every tournament you play in. You need to look to the next event and stay positive. I had a bad match at the UK Championship in York and that can happen.”
Mark Allen, fresh off a 10-6 defeat in the UK Championship final against Ronnie O’Sullivan, earned a hard fought 4-2 win over Liang Wenbo.
The Pistol doesn’t have the best of records against China’s Liang. The 2016 English Open champion had won all five of their previous meetings going into today’s clash. However, it was Allen who got the win this evening, making breaks of 69 and 78 along the way.
“It was all about the win. I knew it probably wasn’t going to be pretty after Sunday night’s antics,” said Allen. “It is nice to finally get a win over Liang. He has had my number over the years. He is a very tough player to play. He has an awkward style, pots good balls and scores heavily.”
Kyren Wilson progressed to round two after a 4-2 victory in an entertaining clash with Oliver Lines.
The Warrior came flying out of the blocks with breaks of 110 and 80 to move 2-0 up. He then looked set to edge further ahead, but broke down on 69 in the third frame, allowing Lines to fight back and steal on the black to make it 2-1.
Lines then restored parity, before Wilson broke away and secured victory with breaks of 56 and 67.
Scotland’s 1994 Masters champion Alan McManus and three-time ranking event semi-finalist Scott Donaldson secured wins on home soil.
McManus edged through 4-3 against John Astley, while Donaldson come through a 4-2 victor against Rory McLeod.
For full results click here.