SF 1 – Kyren Wilson 6-4 Ronnie O’Sullivan
Yesterday Ronnie had beaten Matthew Selt but it had been a struggle. Therefore I had little confidence that he would win today against the reigning World Champion and, unfortunately, I was proven right as Kyren Wilson prevailed by 6-4. One thing though that pleased me today is Ronnie’s fighting spirit as he came back from 5-1 down to 5-4 down trailing only by a single frame. But Kyren was playing really well and wasn’t to be denied. He took the next and last frame of the match with a great 102.
Here is WST report on that match
WARRIOR SHOOTS DOWN ROCKET
World Champion Kyren Wilson held off a Ronnie O’Sullivan fightback to edge a pulsating Xi’an Grand Prix semi-final clash 6-4 and make the 15th ranking event final of his career.
Victory for 32-year-old Wilson reaffirms his form after a rocky start to the campaign. The Englishman was whitewashed 6-0 by Zhou Yuelong in his first knockout appearance since winning the World Championship. He is now just one win away from capturing a seventh ranking title.
It is a second straight defeat for O’Sullivan at the hands of the Warrior, who prevailed 6-5 in the 2021 UK Championship quarter-finals. However, O’Sullivan still leads the head-to-head standings 6-4.
Wilson had moved himself to the cusp of victory in today’s clash, when breaks of 57, 74, 64 and 74 helped him into a commanding 5-1 advantage.
O’Sullivan wasn’t going down without a fight and rallied with contributions of 87 and 55 to stay in contention at 5-3, before a hugely dramatic ninth.
Wilson had appeared to be in control, after fluking the third last red. However, a superb clearance of 37 helped O’Sullivan to force a re-spotted black. He returned the favour, with a fluked double to the top left to pull within one.
The momentum appeared to be with the Rocket, but Wilson summoned a match winning break of 102 saw him over the line to book a place in the final against either Judd Trump or Daniel Wells. The winner tomorrow will take home a top prize of £177,000.
“When Ronnie fluked the black to make it 5-4, the crowd went mad in here and that created a really good atmosphere. I made a good one visit to close it out,” said world number three Wilson. “The crowd have been fantastic and this is a great venue. It is really good fun to play in.
“I’ve really prepared hard for this event and the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters, which comes straight after. My wife and kids are out in Dubai at the moment, we were going to have a little holiday there before Saudi, but unfortunately they are going to have to wait a little bit longer.
“Both Judd and Daniel are really nice lads. There is an argument to say Judd is the best player in the world right now. It is good for him that someone around his age group, in myself, is coming along and trying to compete with him. In the past it has been the Class of 92, Shaun Murphy, Mark Selby and Neil Robertson all of the time. Daniel is a great player, good family man and works really hard. I’m pleased to see him doing well too.”
Here are the scores for the match:
SF 2 – Judd Trump 6-1 Daniel Wells
Judd Trump on the other hand really had an easy task in beating Daniel Wells by 6-1. Judd played well enough but he was never put under any pressure.
TRUMP TOP OF THE WORLD
Judd Trump thrashed Daniel Wells 6-1 to book his place in the final of the inaugural Xi’an Grand Prix, surpassing Mark Allen as world number one in the process.
It’s the first time Trump has been world number one since November 2021. The £77,000 minimum prize for reaching the final draws the Englishman level with Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen at the summit. However, he is guaranteed to move ahead on count back of the most recent event.
Today’s victory extends an undefeated streak to start the season for Trump, who won the Shanghai Masters last month. He’s now won his first ten matches of the campaign. Trump has been a particularly successful in China recently, having been victorious in 24 of his last 25 matches in the country.
Next up for the 28-time ranking event winner, is a showdown with World Champion Kyren Wilson in the title match tomorrow. The victor will take home a top prize of £177,000.
Welshman Wells departs a defeated man in his third ranking event semi-final appearance. However, he can take solace from putting in his best showing since regaining professional status at the beginning of last season, following a period off the tour.
The match lasted just over two hours, as Trump blitzed to victory. He fired in runs of 67, 64, 96, 56, 63 and 99 on his way to a routine win. Tomorrow will be the 45th ranking final of Trump’s illustrious career.
Trump said: “It is nice to get back to world number one. That all goes out of the window now. I don’t want to get to world number one then lose in a final. It is all about trying to finish off what I’ve done. I had an excellent tournament in Shanghai. Not quite as good here, but I’ve done what I’ve needed to.
“In Kyren’s own mind he will have a lot more confidence and feel like he is the man to beat. I feel like over the last couple of years I’ve played well against him and done what I needed to do. He will have that extra bit of motivation after winning the World Championship, it fills you with confidence. I will have to try and shut that down early.”
The Final tomorrow will be contested between the reigning World Champion and the Number One ranked player …
I expect a close, high quality match …
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Here is a link to Ronnie’s comments after his defeat. He still seems to be very unhappy with the state of his game:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/30072401/ronnie-osullivan-fears-snooker-future-embarrassing-defeat-wilson/
Thank you for this link. There were no quotes by Ronnie inWST report. Of course he would be unhappy and frustrated. He’s always been a perfectionist, setting very high standards for himself.
I really hope that Ronnie can figure out the problem with his right hand. He keeps saying that it feels like it doesn’t belong to his body. Before the World Championship he said that he had found something to work on. Unfortunately that seems to be gone. Still, he keeps coming up with good results, but feeling comfortable with his game always seemed to be Ronnie’s top priority.
I’m not sure that the problem is with his right hand. What I fear is happening is something quite common and normal but very unfortunate all the same. He will be 49 in December and I fear that his eyesight may be changing. Mark Williams now wears glasses although he never managed to get used to play with them.
I can understand why wearing glasses while playing snooker can be a hinderance. Stuart Bingham also tried it but didn’t keep using them. Do you know why players don’t try using contact lenses? They might improve their field of vision without feeling uncomfortable.
A number of them tried that and gave up. It’s not that easy to get used to lenses and that’s from personal experience. Eyes are very sensitive. They easily get dry and irritated when wearing lenses especially if the atmosphere in the room is hot and dry. When that happens, it’s very uncomfortable. Also some types of eyes issues can’t be corrected with soft lenses. Hard lenses are even more difficult to get used to.
Thank you very much for your answer and your website. It is very much appreciated.
Lots of players wear contact lenses (Marco Fu, Zhang Anda, Cao Yupeng, Sunny Akani, Sam Craigie, Fan Zhengyi, etc.), and several top players have tried them (Stuart Bingham, Shaun Murphy). Judd Trump wore them for the first part of his career, then had corrective laser surgery, and thereafter ascended to become the best player in the world.
But this doesn’t usually address the problem of getting older – hardening of the lens – which results in difficulty focusing. There’s no real analogue to ‘bifocals’ or ‘varifocals’ (although there are some advanced technologies for cataract patients).
It’s possible to play to a reasonable level without perfect eyesight, but any kind of eye problem will lead to tiredness, which at least limits practice time. For a time Marco Fu had an average shot-time of about 10s, trying to save his eyes from the strong lights, which were uncomfortable and exhausting.
Ultimately Ray Reardon blamed his eyes for his decision to retire from professional snooker.
As always against Trump, Wilson is a true loser. I predict 10-4 for Trump
I did not have much hope either, although Wilson used to be a reliable Trump-beater, but this season wasn’t much fun so far and the only positive in Ronnie’s loss was that I did not have to watch Trump at all. However, I’ve been told Wilson delivered, so the last frame might be worth watching. 🙂
I was wrong (fortunately) 🙂