The inaugural Turkish Masters comes to a close on Sunday when Matthew Selt will meet Judd Trump over the best of 19 frames to become the first champion of this new event and pocket £100,000 in the process.
Trump will go in search of a second title on the season in this final while Selt will be looking to reach 10 frames to pocket the second tournament win of his career, one which would easily be the biggest he will have claimed to date.
Matthew Selt
We’ve seen a number of surprise tournament winners and finalists this season already and while you couldn’t call Matthew Selt one of those given he has a ranking title to his name, I think it is fair to say he wouldn’t have been particularly high up on any shortlist when the week began. He has come through quite nicely though and he knows if he wins this match he will do wonders for his ranking and will have huge confidence going into the World Championship.
Selt has seen off some good opponents this week. He has been the Chinese heartbreaker after dumping Zhao Xintong and Ding Junhui out of the event. The latter was beaten in the semi-final but he made just one 50 break in the entire match and had an extremely positive run of the ball. He will definitely need the latter again here if he doesn’t up his scoring. You also sense he needs a good start else this could unravel quite quickly for him.
Judd Trump
At no stage this week have we seen anything close to the best of Judd Trump. We didn’t last week either when he made the final of the Welsh Open so it is a testament to the quality of his all-round game that he can make successive finals without being close to offering up his best stuff. That will give him a lot of confidence because he’ll know when his best game does come to the party then he will be very hard to beat, but two weeks of grinding out wins might take its toll at some point.
The one thing you could say about Trump this week is the draw has opened up for him. He has only met one top 16 player and that was Shaun Murphy in the semi-final but Murphy folded like a cheap suit from 2-1 up and never really threatened Trump, despite the Champion of Champions winner looking like he was there for the taking. You can always tell how close Trump is to top form by his scoring power and the fact he has made one ton in the main draw highlights he isn’t even close.
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Head to head
These two men have met on eight previous occasions and as you would imagine given what he has achieved in the game, it is Judd Trump who has come out on top more often. He has eight wins to the three of Selt. He only leads 38-30 though so it isn’t like he regularly does a job on Selt. This will be the first time they have met in a final of any kind and it is also the first time they have met in a two session match. They have met twice this season already. Trump beat Selt at the English Open but Selt got his revenge in the UK Championship, which is probably the biggest match they have played prior to this one.
Betting
I’m not really sure what to expect from this final in truth but I’m not convinced it will be a classic because I don’t think Trump is anything like in good form and there is every chance that the occasion might get to Selt with this being the biggest match he has ever played in. He has won a ranking title before but this would be a level above the Indian Open and would open so many doors in his career so it is a big occasion for him.
He hasn’t scored fantastically well all week in fairness and in the semi-final he played 11 frames and only made one 50 break. Trump isn’t scoring a huge deal better and while he might warm his way into this final and be playing well by the end of it, especially if he leads it, I’m not sure he’ll be bang on it from the start. You can get 5/6 on there being less than 1.5 centuries in the first session and that looks good enough to me. Trump has only made one ton in the main draw this week while Selt has only made two. For there to be two in nine frames in this first session when the nerves and tension will be around seems unlikely to me.
Tips
WON – Back Under 1.5 first session centuries for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Betfair
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