Three-Ton Trump Into Quarters
Judd Trump finished with three consecutive centuries, including a 147 attempt, as he eased to a 5-1 win over Zhang Anda in the last 16 of the 918.com German Masters.
Trump has played the best snooker of the tournament so far in Berlin and looks in the mood to win his first title since the World Grand Prix 11 months ago. He will face Martin Gould in the quarter-finals at the Tempodrom on Friday evening.
Bristol’s Trump took the opening frame tonight before China’s Zhang levelled with a break of 86. Trump regained the lead in a scrappy third and then raced through the last three frames in just 33 minutes with runs of 104, 125 and 120. Trump made a maximum at this venue last year and almost repeated the feat, as in the last frame he potted 15 reds with blacks but was unlucky to partially snooker himself on the yellow, and failed to pot it with a swerve shot.
“I’ve practised a lot and it is paying off at the moment. I feel no pressure and I know I’m going to play well,” said the world number five. “I was confident of making the 147 because I made one on the same table last year. I just potted the (15th) black slightly too thin and the cue ball ran too far. If I can go out and play like that tomorrow I’ve got no worries.”
Londoner Gould also enjoyed an emphatic win, beating Ben Woollaston 5-0 with top breaks of 68 and 54.
World number one Mark Selby suffered a 5-3 defeat against Stephen Maguire. Selby led 3-2 after breaks of 90, 87 and 58, but Glasgow’s Maguire, ranked 17th, hit back to win the last three frames with top runs of 83 and 67. He now meets Graeme Dott.
“”I fought well and closed it out well in the end,” said Maguire after reaching his first ranking event quarter-final since June’s Australian Goldfields Open. “I’ve not been to the later stages of tournaments recently. I’ve put some hard work in and hopefully I can keep getting results. It’s only the quarter-finals so I’m not getting carried away.
“Graeme is very similar to Mark because he’s gritty and you’ll never win easily. I just want to pick up the trophy on Sunday. I think I’ll get back into the top 16 at some point whether it’s now or later in the season.”
Dott scored a 5-3 win over Masters runner-up Barry Hawkins. Larkhall’s Dott made breaks of 75 and 62 in going 2-1 ahead, before Hawkins levelled with a run of 89 then added the fifth frame. But 2006 World Champion Dott finished strongly by winning the last three with a top run of 51.