Neil Robertson scored a tense 6-4 win over world number one Judd Trump to book a semi-final showdown with Mark Williams at the Grosvenor Casinos Champion of Champions in Bolton.
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Victory for the Australian serves as a boost, after falling to 18th in the world last week and narrowly missing out on an automatic spot at the upcoming Victorian Plumbing UK Championship, meaning he will now have to go to the qualifiers.
Today’s win is his first over Trump since the 2020 UK Championship final, where he prevailed in an epic encounter 10-9. The pair also met in the 2019 Champion of Champions final, when Robertson again triumphed 10-9.
Robertson earned his place in today’s group final with a 4-3 win over Ali Carter, while Trump demolished newly crowned International Champion Ding Junhui 4-0.
Breaks of 90, 84 and 59 helped Robertson to take three of the first four and lead 3-1 at the mid-session interval this evening.
When play resumed Trump hit back and claimed two on the bounce to restore parity at 3-3. Robertson reclaimed the lead with a break of 61, before an epic eighth frame.
It came down to the pink, where both players trapped each other in perilous snookers behind the black. Eventually Robertson’s snooker forced Trump into two fouls, before he left the pink over the middle for the Melbourne cueman to move 5-3 ahead.
Trump refused to wilt and a break of 57 helped him move within a frame, but Robertson cleared from brown to black in the tenth, including a stunning long range blue, to score a huge victory and a place in the semis.
Robertson said: “It was an incredible game. Judd showed all of the qualities he’s had throughout his whole career. His safety play and discipline was incredible. I matched it with him and stayed with him.
“That blue is definitely one of the highlight shots of my career, in terms of the pressure and everything that was at stake on it.
“I just tried to leave myself a shot at the blue. There aren’t many players that would take that on.”
The final group takes place on Friday, with Ronnie O’Sullivan facing Xiao Guodong and Mark Selby going up against Shaun Murphy.