We have reached the final of the Northern Ireland Open where the same two men will compete for the second Home Nations title of the season as they did last year when Judd Trump takes on Ronnie O’Sullivan inside the Waterfront Hall in Belfast.
Trump overcame the Rocket 9-7 in a brilliant final last term and he will be looking to repeat that and successfully defend the title. O’Sullivan will become the leading winner of ranking titles if he wins this final, which would be yet another amazing achievement in a fine career.
Judd Trump
You have to give Judd Trump all the credit in the world here. This will be his third final in as many Sunday’s both in China and in the UK. Not only has he been relentlessly playing matches in recent times but he has been doing a lot of travelling too. He is clearly tired but he is hanging in there and getting the job done. He knows after this match there is 10 days before the UK Championship begins so I expect him to give his all here before a well-earned break.
Clearly we haven’t seen Trump at his best this week but when he has had to step his game up he has been able to and you can never fault any player for that. He will want to score the best he’s done all week in this final, both for pride in his performance and also the fact he is going to have to go big in the scoring department if he is going to see off O’Sullivan here. The flip side to Trump not being at his best is he has been prepared to guts it out, even against a master tactician in John Higgins in the semi-final.
Ronnie O’Sullivan
It will be interesting to gauge the form of Ronnie O’Sullivan here. On paper he has had a couple of tricky opponents in the last couple of rounds but neither of them turned up against him and so in truth the Rocket has been largely on easy street so far in this tournament. He is going to need to deliver his best performance to win this final. There is no doubt he has got better the longer the week has gone on but I’ve not yet seen a performance from him that would beat Trump.
It will be interesting to see if O’Sullivan continues his open and at times reckless approach, given that he is up against someone who will take advantage of any chances that come his way, and also the fact that he is in the final and the trophy is within touching distance. He might need to based on the chances his approach has coughed up to others in this tournament. We know Ronnie can play lights out snooker. He might need to here.
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Head-to-head
These two superstars have met on 25 previous occasions and although O’Sullivan has the better of them it is only 13-12 so Trump is definitely not a player who is beaten before he turns up against the Rocket. If anything he relishes the occasion which is rare. Further evidence of that is this will be the tenth final between the two and Trump leads 6-3 in their previous ones, including here 12 months ago. It was O’Sullivan who won their last meeting, 10-9 in the Tour Championship semi-final last season. O’Sullivan leads 141 to 132 in frames won which would suggest his victories come a little easier than those of Trump.
Betting
Depending on where you shop, at the time of writing you can get even money on either man to deliver the goods here. I find that interesting because I have Judd Trump as a pretty warm favourite in this match. I’ll never ever overlook O’Sullivan or write him off completely, history shows that would be stupid, but at the same time you have to judge this matchup on the here and now and I just believe Trump is delivering the better stuff.
There was once a time when O’Sullivan dominated this rivalry because Trump had no safety game and the Rocket could tie him up and win that way but the world champion has improved no end in that department to the extent that he can outplay O’Sullivan in that department. Trump has the better of the long game by a mile and there is no difference between the two in the balls. If O’Sullivan stays with Trump early we could have a cracking final. If he doesn’t this could end up like The Masters final earlier in the year which Trump ran away with. Either way it is Trump for me.
Tips
WON – Back J.Trump to beat R.O’Sullivan for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Bet365
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