The semi-final line up at the Tour Championship will be completed on Thursday when the last of the quarter finals will be played out as the world number one Judd Trump takes on the last man into the draw in Barry Hawkins.
The world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan awaits the winner in the semi-final on Saturday so whoever comes through this is assured of a tough match before they get to the final but they need to get to the last four first.
Judd Trump
All eyes will be on Judd Trump now. He has been the dominant force in the game for a while now but he only has one world title to his name and everyone will be looking to see if he can make that two in six weeks time when the world final takes place at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. He’s so far clear in the world rankings and winning so many titles that you could be forgiven for putting the title around his neck already, but as we saw last year nothing is guaranteed in that event.
Trump was pretty critical of conditions the last time he was in this venue for the Welsh Open, one of the few early exits he has had from a tournament this season so he has something to prove in that regard but really this should be right up his street. His record in finals, which are the only matches of two sessions in the entire season up until this event, is bordering on impeccable of late so he really is the man to beat here. The fact he hasn’t got his hands on this trophy before might be another spur for him.
Barry Hawkins
For a man who had dropped out of the top 16 earlier this season, for Barry Hawkins to make it into this tournament took some doing and is huge credit to him for having done so, particularly as he hasn’t made a final this term. Prize money these days is heavily weighted to making finals and winning trophies so it highlights how much he has played this season and how consistent he has been that he has qualified for this event.
The highlight of the season was a couple of semi-final appearances, both of which came since the turn of the year, in the German Masters and the Players Championship so he appears to be warming to his task more as the season goes along. That isn’t a surprise though because he has a very good record at the World Championship and often goes there in top form so he is used to playing well at this time of year. He’ll certainly need to play well here if he is to come through this encounter.
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Head to Head
These two have met on 12 previous occasions and they are now locked at 6-6. I say now locked because Trump won their most recent meeting to level up the score. That came in the semi-final of the German Masters earlier this year when Hawkins squandered a 5-1 lead to lose 6-5. Hawkins might be level on wins with Trump but he is 54-47 ahead on the frame counts so clearly his wins are more comfortable than the Trump ones. Trump has now won their last three matches but they have all been in a deciding frame. This is the first time they will have met in a two session match.
Betting
We haven’t really seen the big breaks flow in this tournament yet but I sense that is about to change when two accomplished scorers get on the green baize for a match which if history is anything to go by is likely to be quite close come the end result. Five of their 10 full 15 red matches have gone to a deciding frame and two others went within one of one so we are likely to see a fair amount of action here which makes me think the odds against on over 3.5 centuries is well worth taking.
This is the first match the two have played this week but they’ve both been around long enough to get a feel for conditions. When they met in that German Masters semi-final last month there were five centuries in 11 frames and there was a Masters semi-final between the pair a few years ago that had four of them in 10 frames so when they meet we usually get a high scoring contest and I don’t see why that would change here. The styles of these two lead to plenty of big breaks and they can keep coming here.
Tips
Back Over 3.5 centuries for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Betfair
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