The second semi-final of the Champion of Champions tournament takes place on Saturday evening when the world number one Judd Trump takes on Mark Allen in what looks like a tantalising clash inside the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.
Neil Robertson awaits the winner of the match in the final on Sunday so both men go into battle knowing they have to overcome two significantly strong opponents if they are to run away with this very prestigious title.
Judd Trump
I think it is fair to say that even though he won the English Open we hadn’t seen the very best of Judd Trump going into this tournament since the behind closed doors stuff got going. We might not have in the early part of his opening group either but we certainly did in the group final. We should acknowledge that neither Stuart Bingham or Dave Gilbert were anywhere near their best against him but Trump powered past Gilbert with five centuries so if he did have any confidence issues they should be behind him.
Trump will have seen the standard that was set in the opening semi-final so he will know he needs to keep up the level of performance from his group stage if he is going to win this tournament. It isn’t always the easiest thing in the world to go though to back up a big performance like that so it will be interesting to see how he goes. The one thing we do know is that he is the best player in the game at the minute and he could remind us just why here.
Mark Allen
It was a day of two halves for Mark Allen in the last of the groups on Thursday. He looked very ordinary for the first six frames against Scott Donaldson but then he came good in the decider when he won that match with a century and then having lived with Ronnie O’Sullivan early doors in the group final, he then powered away from him with the finishing line in sight which should have given him a lot of confidence heading into this semi-final.
When you look at Allen’s results over the last 12-18 months you’ll see that he hasn’t won a tournament or made many finals but if you dig a little deeper he hasn’t played badly at all, he just keeps on running into monster performances against him. He is likely to face another of those here so he is going to have to dig deep and find his best snooker. We know from when he won The Masters that he can win these elite events and here is a good chance to remind everyone of that.
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Head to Head
These two have met on 17 previous occasions in the last and surprisingly it is Allen who holds a narrow 9-8 lead. When you look at the frame totals he leads by five so there is a suggestion that his wins are a little wider than Trump’s. This will be the second year in succession these two have met in the semi-final of this tournament with Trump coming from 4-3 down to beat the man from Northern Ireland 6-4 last year. That was their only previous semi-final encounter so it will be interesting to see what this one holds for us.
Betting
This semi-final will have to go some to live up to the quality that was produced in the first semi on Friday night but we have two class acts on show so it might be foolish to think that can’t happen. One thing we know for sure is there is going to be a lot of big scoring on show here because the table looks to be playing like a dream and these two both enjoy having the balls open and looking to make big breaks.
The bet I like here though is the same one I took for the opening semi-final which is over 9.5 frames. Matches between these two tend to be tight and neither man likes losing at this stage of proceedings so they’ll both be giving it their all. They are both elite players for whom matches of this importance are the norm now. Trump won their meeting here last year 6-4 and looking through their history there is a number of deciding frames and two frame wins. Whoever comes out on top here I expect this to be 6-4 or 6-5 too.
Tips
Back Over 9.5 frames for a 3/10 stake at 2.30 with William Hill
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