Judd Trump battles to advance in German Masters qualifiers

Judd Trump has booked his spot in Berlin in his bid for a third straight German Masters title, but he had to battle off a spirited Anthony Hamilton 5-3 in the last 64 in Cannock.

The Juddernaut defeated Jack Lisowski 9-2 in the 2021 German Masters final and Neil Robertson 9-6 in 2020. The English snooker player began his bid for another title as the qualifiers kicked off this week.

The world number started with a 5-1 victory over Tian Pengfei in the first round on Wednesday. The 32-year-old looked on course for another comfortable result as breaks of 57, 72, and 74 saw him ease 3-0 clear in the race to five.

But 2017 German Masters winner Hamilton made sure it was not going to be an easy game for Judd Trump.
Hamilton showed his class to equalize and bring the score to 3-3 with knocks of 74 and 130. Trump steeled himself with further runs of 58 and 100 and sealed his progress to the German capital early next year for the main event.

However, there was sad news for last season’s German Masters semi-finalist Barry Hawkins. The world number 12 shockingly lost 5-3 to former Shoot Out winner, Michael Georgiou in the second round.

Hawkins initially came back from 3-1 down to level at 3-3 with a break of 119 to boost his morale, but Cypriot snooker player, Georgiou, edged the seventh frame before a closing break of 52 sealed his spot in Berlin.

While 2015 world champion Stuart Bingham also got defeated 5-1 to Luca Brecel in the first round. Bingham and Brecel split the first two frames, then Brecel won the next four frames to reach the final stages.
Craig Steadman also came out top after beating Zhang Jiankang 5-2, while Gao Yang edged Xiao Guodong 5-4.

Written by Collins Nwokolo