The inaugural Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters title will be won on Saturday when two superstars meet in the final of the first staging of the competition as Mark Williams goes up against Judd Trump for the biggest prize of the season so far.
These two men are playing for a cool £500,000 in this final as well as the trophy. Both players have won the biggest titles there are to win in the sport and they’ll be keen to add this one to their collection so we should get a decent final.
Mark Williams
Although he continues to talk himself down, Mark Williams continues to get himself into big finals and he’ll be looking to win another ranking event just five months after he took down the Tour Championship. This one would mean a little bit more to his longevity because he is guaranteed to remain in the top 16 of the world rankings for another two years should be come out on top in this final, which would mean that he can pick his schedule even better to ensure he peaks for the events he wants to go deep in.
Williams has done well to make this final but there is no escaping the fact that he hasn’t played a single top 16 player this week and so he is going up in class for this match. I don’t think that will worry him necessarily but it does make it a little harder to judge his form over the course of the week. One thing we do know with Williams is that if he plays well he is more than a match for anyone but if he is slightly off it he can leave himself a little open, especially against the better players.
Judd Trump
We are only into the first week in September and already Judd Trump is competing for a second major title on the season. He has already returned to world number one over the course of this week and could take a massive advantage at the top of the rankings with a win here, one which would go with the Shanghai Masters title he has already won on the season. When you consider that he was only beaten in the final of the Xi’an Grand Prix in between it is clear that Trump is in good form.
There were one or two signs of vulnerability about him in his win over Shaun Murphy in the previous round though. At 5-3 up he seemed to struggle to get over the line and while he eventually got the job done, you just wonder if the huge amount of snooker he has played already this season is starting to catch up with him. Trump is scoring pretty well but there were a couple of frames he didn’t put to bed against Murphy in the semi-final and he certainly doesn’t want Williams coming back to the table while frames are still live.
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Head-to-head
These two have met on 21 previous occasions and it is Judd Trump who has a 14-7 lead in those outings however when you take into account that Trump only leads 98-87 on the frame count in those matches it appears that when Williams wins he does so with a bit in hand while in the main the Trump wins are tighter affairs. This will obviously be the first time the two have met in Saudi Arabia with this only the second event in the country. Incredibly it is just the second time they have met in a final. Trump won the first one which was in The Masters in 2023. They have met over the best of 19 frames on two past instances and they shared those two meetings.
Betting
I think there has been evidence that Judd Trump is weakening the longer this week has gone on. His scoring is a telltale sign of that and he only made one break over 77 in the quarter final and only one over 72 in the semi-final and that is in 12 winning frames which is unlike him. He is at a level now where he can win matches without relying on his scoring but whether he can dominate Mark Williams in that manner I’m less sure.
Williams has clearly been improving the longer the week has gone on even though he hasn’t played anyone of note in terms of top 16 ranking in this tournament, the opponent has never really been relevant for Williams. I’m not sure if Williams is in enough of his prime to win this match but if the Trump that has played the quarter final and the semi-final shows up then he is certainly good enough to go with him in the battle. The Masters final between these two was 10-8 to Trump and I think the Welshman can stay within a couple of frames here if not get a bit closer.
Tips
Back M.Williams (+2.5 frames) to beat J.Trump for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Betfair
