The final of the Wuhan Open takes place out in China on Sunday when two men who have already won big titles in 2023 look to add the first Chinese ranking event since the pandemic to their illustrious CV when Judd Trump meets Ali Carter.
There is plenty on the line here not least the winner as good as securing a place at the Tour Championship with the first prize on offer in this match so there is plenty to play for over the course of the potential 19 frames.
Judd Trump
The English Open champion Judd Trump is looking for a second ranking title in as many weeks in this final having gone 19 months without one prior to his win in Brentwood seven days ago. That would be some achievement if the two tournaments were in the same country let alone when they are potentially in countries on the other side of the world to each other. A win would almost certainly put Trump into all the Players Series events as the number one seed too.
Trump has actually performed better this week than he did last week. Confidence of the win behind him and the freedom that has provided him for the remainder of the campaign will be one reason for that but it might also be that he is just in good touch. The one thing you would say is that both opponents in the quarter final and semi-final missed some easy balls against him so that might have flattered Trump’s form a little but you don’t win 13 straight matches if you are not hitting the ball well.
Ali Carter
Trump is not the only player to have a recent ranking event title as his opponent in this final Ali Carter landed the German Masters back in February and hasn’t really looked back since then. He followed that up with a run to the final of the Players Championship and now he has reached this inaugural Wuhan Open final so 2023 has been pretty good to The Captain. Carter has won two Chinese titles in his career so he clearly likes this part of the world.
Carter has played very well this week. He holds the highest break in the tournament with a 145 at the beginning of it and since then he has disposed of Stuart Bingham and Mark Allen and when he needed to in his semi-final against Lyu Haotian he found a burst of scoring which will give anyone a run for their money. He then followed that up by declaring he is feeling very good about life on and off the table and cut a very confident figure which was interesting.
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Head-to-head
These two men have met on 11 previous occasions and interestingly it is Ali Carter who has a narrow 6-5 lead however in a weird twist of fate it is Trump who has the 54-49 edge when it comes to the frame count. That suggests Carter wins their close matches and Trump wins the more comfortable ones. This will be their second meeting in China with Carter having won the previous one. They have met in two multi-session matches in the past and are all-square in those at 1-1 but it is Trump who has won their only previous final. History would suggest there isn’t much between these two cueists.
Betting
Judd Trump has done very well to make it through to this final given the challenges he has had in terms of the schedule and the short period of time to travel to China but I suspect his luck might run out here. At the very best I see this being close if Trump does win the final because Ali Carter looks in good touch to me and will fancy his chances of winning this match. I certainly don’t see Trump running away with this one but if it is the match where the exertions of the week catch up with him then Carter could have things his own way.
I am aware that Carter does have a habit of coming up short in major finals though with just nine titles from his 23 finals overall so rather than back him to win the match, which certainly is value at the prices on offer, I’ll take him to ride the 3.5 frames bookmakers are giving him, which looks a frame too many at least. Carter has made three tons this week as well as a 97, 96 and 91 so he is in excellent scoring form. We know he can mix it with Trump in the safety department so even if Trump does win this final it is hard to see him winning it any easier than 10-7. I’m far from convinced Trump does win this final so Carter on the handicap looks good to me.
Tips
Back A.Carter (+3.5 frames) to beat J.Trump for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with BetVictor
