Judd Trump Strolls Past Yan Bingtao To Win Players’ Championship Final

It would have been a more memorable final for Judd Trump should he have had a more difficult opponent to contend with. Instead, it was a walk in the park for the World Champion who eased past Yan Bingtao.

The Chinese cueist showed some intention in the opening right frames, only for Trump to tear away towards the finish line from then on. One would think this sort of final would go down to the wire, but Trump was by miles the better individual, as he took the game by the scruff its neck and made it a rather one-sided affair. The world champion would have wanted a more competitive final but he will take the win anyway as he pockets that highly-coveted prize money.

Bingtao though didn’t start badly with breaks of 70 and 55. The pair were in fact level with two frames gone and Bingtao knew he had some fighting chance. However, he threw that all away in frames to come as Trump came out tops in the following four frames. With breaks of 75, 50, 75 and a century of 125.

Bingtao then pulled one back to win the last frame of the session 101-27. What a close to the afternoon procession that was. The Chinese then resumed the second session on the front foot, winning two frames on the trot to leave the scores at 6-4. Bingtao must have thought himself capable of staging a comeback but little did he know that that was his last frame win.

The world number one hit back in stunning fashion, recording a century break of 108 before reeling an unanswered break of 68 to leave the score line at 8-4 in the second session mid-interval.

Trump then made it three straight frame wins with a scrappy 88-36, leaving him only one frame adrift of victory. The world number one in the final frame gave Bingtao a little chance to get back into the game but he couldn’t quite make the cut. Trump cruised to a 10^th frame victory and make it a record-equaling fifth ranking title this campaign. Juddernaut has been incredible in the past year and has shown no signs of slowing down as the Gibraltar Open draws near.

Written by: Roland Arum