Yesterday Ronnie beat Gary Wilson to book his place in the semi-finals.

Judd Trump reached the Final of the 2024 World Grand Prix by beating Cao Yupeng by 6-2 in the first semi-final yesterday evening. Here is the report by WST:

TRUMP BEATS CAO TO REACH FINAL

udd Trump reached his sixth final of the season – and remained on track for a fourth ranking title – as he beat Cao Yupeng 6-2 in the semi-finals of the Spreadex World Grand Prix in Leicester. 

World number two Trump can look forward to a blockbuster final on Sunday, against Ronnie O’Sullivan or Ding Junhui, where he will be aiming for the 27th ranking title of his career. The 34-year-old has been prolific this season, reaching five other finals and collecting ranking titles at the English Open, Wuhan Open and Northern Ireland Open during a golden spell in October. 

After a fast start tonight, Trump was made to work hard by China’s Cao, who is still waiting to win his first title. But Bristol’s Trump got the job done as he booked a 42nd career ranking final and remained on course to win this event for the fourth time.

Trump dominated the first three frames with breaks of 70, 106 and 61, his opponent failing to pot a ball. Cao also trailed 55-5 in frame four, but made an excellent clearance to force a respotted black, then converted a cracking long pot to a baulk corner to gain some momentum. After the interval, he controlled frame five to close to 3-2.

Frames six and seven were scrappy affairs and Trump got the better of them both for 5-2. In the eighth, he looked to be cruising past the winning post until he missed a tricky black on 60. World number 43 Cao had a chance to clear but also missed the black on 24 with two reds remaining, and that ended his hopes of a fight-back. 

“I started really well and should have gone 4-0 up,” said 2019 World Champion Trump. “He nicked the frame to go 3-1 and that slowed the game down, it went tight and the balls were awkward. I tried to keep going for shots to keep the game flowing and in the end I managed to get over the line. I felt really relaxed and I felt I would score if I got chances, even when things got slow and didn’t go my way. 

“It’s nice to be the first player through to the final, I’ll watch the other game and look forward to the challenge ahead. They are both amazing players. I would love to go up against Ronnie when he’s in great form. Ding beat me at the UK Championship so it would be good to get revenge over him.“

Cao got up to a terrible start but showed resilience in the way he tried to fight back. It was however too late and too much to do. He’s not the strongest player under pressure although he has improved significantly in that regard in recent years.

Other than that, the Saudi Arabia announcement hasn’t been that well received by the fans which pleased me to be honest. I do know that China isn’t the best either when it comes to human rights and some ethnic groups in particular are very badly treated but at least China has a real, authentic interest in the sport of snooker with millions playing it. It’s not sports-washing.

The concept of the golden ball has divided opinions, most of those who actually commented being negative about it. I don’t mind. It’s a glorified exhibition, nothing more, no matter how much money is put in it.

There was also reactions by a person I know to be from Graeme Dott’s close family. They said that once again this is for the top players and the lower ranked players are “screwed”. There is truth in it but if you want to sell a sport into new territories, you can’t start with 128 players and you have to go there with your most marketable assets. Also, I want to hope that if WST is making more money, some of it at least will trickle down to the WPBSA and the lower ranked players. All the current stars started at the bottom when they were young. WST, at the very least should understand that supporting the young players, starting at the bottom, is important for the future … ¹ and that those who served the sport for most of their adult life also deserve to make a decent living out of their sport.

Tonight, Ronnie and Ding will face each other again. Hopefully it will be a good match and although I always want Ronnie to win, I wouldn’t be too disappointed if Ding prevails. Whoever wins tonight will have my support tomorrow 🙂

1. although… sometimes, too often actually, I wonder how much WST really cares for snooker’s future. ↩︎