A place in the final of The Masters is at stake inside Alexandra Palace in London on Saturday evening when the top two ranked players in the world battle it out as Judd Trump takes on the world champion Kyren Wilson.
These two hold the latest two Triple Crown trophies and one of them will progress to compete to get their hands on the other one on Sunday. This is a rivalry which is growing nicely so we are set up for a great semi-final here.
Judd Trump
The world number one Judd Trump is still on course to complete the Triple Crown in the same season having won the UK Championship last month and he is exuding the confidence of a man who is in great form and somewhere close to the top of his game at the minute. You can always tell where the confidence levels lie with Trump by the amount of naughty snooker that comes out and he is starting to show more and more of it in this tournament which is good to see.
The other thing we know about Trump is these are the arenas that he lives for. He has been enjoying himself in front of these huge crowds and a rowdy Saturday night audience could be right up his street. Trump might have been a little fortunate in the opening round when Barry Hawkins twice had bad fortune going into the pack but he oozed class in the second half of his quarter final against Ding Junhui and if he picks up where he left off there he will be hard to stop.
Kyren Wilson
It has been a bit of a chaotic week for the world champion Kyren Wilson so far. He has been involved in a couple of cracking contests where he has really been made to battle hard and then he has had an issue with his ankle in recent days which threatened his participation in the tournament. Thankfully that subsided enough for him to remain in it but he’ll need to hope that it eases up a little because he will need to play his best in this match if he is going to win it.
Wilson goes into the semi-final knowing that he has beaten Trump in a couple of finals this term so the big stage and the important matches don’t worry him against the world number one. What might worry him going into this match is his scoring so far this week. He has done enough to win matches but he hasn’t made a century yet and that is always a sign of how well a player of this quality is playing. The chalk Brecel uses might have hampered him in the quarter final though.
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Head-to-head
There have been 24 previous renewals of what is fast becoming the biggest rivalry in the sport and it is Judd Trump who leads the way with 14 wins to the 10 of Kyren Wilson. Trump is also ahead on the frame count at 113-100. This will be their fourth meeting of the season with Wilson having won two of the previous three while it will be their fourth semi-final. Trump leads 2-1 in the other three. These two have met four times in The Masters with Trump winning on three of those occasions but Wilson won their only previous Alexandra Palace semi-final. Trump leads their best of 11 battles 6-3.
Betting
Wilson is going to need his very best to win this match you would feel but there hasn’t been too many signs of his top form this week. There is still time to find it but when you consider the issues with his ankle it is unlikely to come out here you would think. I think this is all about Trump and if he gets out in front early he could run away with this.
The big issue I have with Wilson is his scoring power hasn’t been there this week. If that doesn’t come with him here I give him little chance in this one. The way Trump played on Friday though even if Wilson does have his high level scoring here there’s no guarantee he can go with Trump. Trump won their UK Championship semi-final 6-2 and I expect something similar here but with a couple of extra frames of leeway I’ll take Trump on the -1.5 frame handicap.
Tips
Back J.Trump to beat K.Wilson for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Unibet