Judd Trump defeated Ali Carter by 10-7 in the final to win the 2023 Wuhan Open. This is Judd’s 25th ranking title, and the second in the space of two weeks.
Congratulations Judd Trump
Trump Scores Wonderful Wuhan Win
Judd Trump was crowned a ranking event winner for the 25th time, as he came from behind to beat Ali Carter 10-7 in the final of the inaugural Wuhan Open.
The victory is all the more remarkable given Trump was battling from 7-3 down to beat Zhang Anda 9-7 in the final of the English Open in Brentwood this time last week, when he claimed a first ranking title for 19 months. He arrived to begin competing in Wuhan two days late and made up for that with two match wins on Wednesday.
It’s the fourth time Trump has won back-to-back titles. He is only the third ever player to win successive tournaments in different countries, following in the footsteps of Stephen Hendry in 1990 and Mark Williams in 2002.
Trump now draws level on 25 with Williams in fifth position on the all-time ranking event winner’s list. Only Ronnie O’Sullivan (39), Hendry (36), John Higgins (31) and Steve Davis (28) have won more.
This week’s tournament marked a first ranking event in Asia since the 2019 World Open in Yushan, a tournament which Trump won. He has now been victorious in three of the last four ranking events to be staged in China. The Ace in the Pack scoops £140,000 for his victory this week, meaning he will move ahead of Mark Allen and become the world number three.
Carter will be disappointed to leave Wuhan without the trophy, but can be pleased to look back on a second final of 2023. He picked up the title at the German Masters back in February, when he defeated Tom Ford in the final in Berlin.
The Captain earns the £63,000 runner-up cheque for his showing this week. His run of 145 in the semi-finals means he shares the high break prize with Aaron Hill, they pocket £2,500 each.
The afternoon session saw Carter battle back from 4-1 down to earn a 5-4 lead heading into tonight. However, it was Trump who hit the ground running this evening to wrest control of this encounter.
Breaks of 116, 56 and 71 saw Trump take a quickfire three on the bounce to move 7-5 ahead. A gutsy contribution of 56 saw Carter close the gap to a single frame, but it was Trump who took the 14th to lead 8-6.
It had looked like Carter would again move within a single frame, but a spurned green to the middle allowed Trump to move to the verge of victory at 9-6. Both players missed final pinks in the next, but it was eventually Carter who deposited it to stay in the contest. However, the 17th frame proved to be the last of the evening with Trump hammering home a spectacular match winning run of 105 to secure the title.
“It was very good. From where I was at the start of the tournament, when I just turned up and hoped for the best. The first day surprised me because I did play pretty well. With that comes a little bit of expectation. The first few rounds did give me a bit of confidence,” said 34-year-old Trump.
“I didn’t give myself much of a chance, but I was so relieved to have won the title last week that this was a bit of a free hit. Nothing really mattered after getting that title. It isn’t until the semi-final stage that you really want to win again. When you get to the final you don’t want to be on the losing end. My record in finals over the last five to ten occasions hasn’t been as good as it was before, so it was nice to get the win.
“My confidence was extremely high at the start of the season. I felt like I was playing really well in practice. I knew the form was there. It was just about having that bit of luck at the right times, which I don’t think was happening. Your confidence then gets knocked and you don’t win. Every season is so different from the one before. This season has been completely different. I’ve got off to an extremely good start and it is probably as well as I’ve ever started a season.
“I think this could be the best venue in China. The way the arena was set up and the amount of people in there made it a very inspiring place to play snooker. Sometimes in the past the arena has been too big and felt empty, but there were a lot of people in there and it spurred me on. I’m definitely someone that likes to play in front of a big crowd.”
Carter said: “I just managed to hang in there today and hoped it would turn. In the end I didn’t have a lot left to be honest. I gave it my best go and it has been a successful week. The ranking points are important and there is lots to look forward to for the rest of the season. I’ve had a good start to the season so far. This is such a big event, to get 63,000 ranking points is almost like a tournament win. Onwards and upwards.”
It was indeed a good tournament. All the players’ reactions I saw on social media were extremely positive. They were very well looked after and felt very welcome. we also saw quite a number of young players, mainly young Chinese players, reaching the latter stages of the event and giving a very good account of themselves.
Wu Yize who only turned 20 yesterday in particular impressed me, as he reached the semi-finals. Losing the match wasn’t the best birthday gift of course but … a nice attention awaited him in the media room after his efforts. Happy belated birthday Wu!
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
This is a place as good as any, so…
… here’s to Monique! May she enjoy the best of health, and long remain capable of maintaining one of the best of places devoted to snooker on the entire web, and most certainly the nicest by a couple of light-years! Yes, I read, it’s not serious, but still, a speedy and complete recovery to you! We all owe you a debt of gratitude.
Thank you Grump!
So, why were there no congratulatory posts? I can’t speak for others, but…
I found, the final came to life here or there, but over vast stretches it was a bland, low-scoring, error-ridden affair, particularly compared to the semifinals. So, Trump can be happy that Carter didn’t play at the level he achieved during his semifinal, for otherwise the result would have been different. And Carter (who put in nine consecutive frames without a noteworthy break) would have been completely crushed had Trump maintained his semifinal level. And both should be grateful that O’Sullivan was hampered by age and injury, because otherwise he would have demonstrated … but okay, enough about that.
Moreover, what takes a lot of the fun out of snooker (for me) is watching very few take home excessively large checks, while half of the participants have nothing to show for their work other than bills. And that’s even with a pool of about 700k in prize money for this tournament.
Other than that, I find it hard to work up much excitement about over-entitled snooker celebrities and their terrible, horrible ordeals. There was far more by way of captivating value in the achievements of, say, Mr.s Lyu, Wu, and Hill. I congratulate them, unreservedly, and am looking forward to watching their unmistakable devotion to the sport, and (hopefully) to their growing skills and achievements.
Look! Judd won the tournament. There is no problem with scheduling. JK (in reference to Lewis)
Who is JK?
Hello, Monique. I’m a bit surprised nobody posted here yesterday to congratulate Judd. Anyway. I was just joking. JK means “Just kidding”. Lewis posted a few days ago that if Trump was to win the tournament, there could be a “potential issue” that some could be claiming, there is no issue with scheduling, which there is obviously to some extent. Well, but explaining a joke really takes the fun out of it…
Yesterday I had to travel from my cycladic island (Santorini) to Athens for some medical treatment. Left home around 6 am and came back around 8pm, very tired and famished. I knew I would likely not have time to post… so I put the post up already on Sunday evening.
No, I mean no one commented on the post on Monday. No worries. Anyway, I’m thinking Judd is on a remarkable form and that he could very well get to more ranking titles than O’Sullivan by the end of his career somehow.
Possibly but we shall see. And those statistics are flawed anyway as the number of events in a season and what was/is ranking changed/changes a lot over time. For a long time only the World Championship was ranking. During the first decade of the 21st century there were only 6-7 events per season… You can only win whats available to you to play in.
I’m not surprised about the lack of enthusiasm for Judd’s achievements on here. I’m a fan of snooker first and foremost. Of course there are players I like more than others as persons, and even that can change over time. I used to dislike a young Mark Allen, when he was seeing himself as the next Alex Higgins and acting accordingly. But he’s matured and now I like him. Same I didn’t like the young Judd’s “big headed” attitude, and I struggled to reconcile it with the Judd I had met on occasions, who was rather shy. Part of that came from his entourage, not his familial entourage, but a bunch of young friends some rather immature and easily disrespectful to Judd’s opponents. But Judd too has changed. His brother Jack has been an important “factor” in that evolution and it’s for the best.
I do agree on this. But we shall see. Maybe by the last 10 years of Judd’s career we will only have 6-7 WST events as well and some China breakaway that will not count. You could argue then that O’Sullivan’s legacy would still be better because Judd had 25 events available when his physical health was still better. Then you could argue that snooker is not that of a physical game. Anyway, I just want to add that the GOAT status, somehow, for me and I think many others, is linked to the World titles and this is where he is still well behind obviously.