We are down to the final of the Xi’an Grand Prix with the two-session match taking place on Sunday as the biggest ranking prize of the season so far will be won and lost when the world champion Kyren Wilson meets the Shanghai Masters winner Judd Trump.
These two men have won a huge title in the last three months so we know that they are playing well and we know that there has been a bit of a historical rivalry about them too so we have all the ingredients needed for a great final.
Kyren Wilson
The world champion Kyren Wilson came into the tournament with questions over him regarding how he would handle the new status and whether climbing the ultimate mountain would lead to a drop off in his standards and his results but having made this final I think we can put all those fears to bed. That doesn’t mean that he’ll win this match but we know he won’t lose because of pressure or a lack of bottle because he has delivered in the biggest match of his life.
That will give him a lot of confidence for this match. He knows he can win the biggest titles in the game and a win over Ronnie O’Sullivan in the semi-final will have reminded him that he can beat the best players in the sport as well. Slowly but surely, match by match we are beginning to see the better form of the Englishman and he’ll be extra determined to win this match because having won the world title he could really climb the rankings over the next few months.
Judd Trump
We are used to Judd Trump being at the business ends of tournaments over the last couple of seasons and he has started this one in the same vein. He has already won the Shanghai Masters and now he is looking for a second Chinese title in as many months over the course of Sunday and if he can get that he would elevate himself as the man to beat going into a really big part of the season with some huge money tournaments on the horizon.
Trump has worked his way through a tricky draw this week but he had the easier of the two semi-finals and he’ll be hoping that makes a difference here, not that I expect tiredness to be an issue with so much money and ranking points on the line. Trump hasn’t had the number of centuries we are accustomed to seeing from him this week but he has dropped just five frames in his five main draw matches. That is good but you do wonder what he’ll have if he is challenged here.
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Head to head
These two have met on 21 previous occasions so they are certainly no strangers to facing each other. Judd Trump heads those matches 13-8 and is comfortably enough ahead in the frame count too where he leads 96-79. One of the reasons for that is that Trump has won their last eight meetings. You have to go back to 2020 for the last time Wilson got the better of Trump. This will be the third time they have met in a final. They have shared the first two. This will obviously be their first meeting in this tournament with it being the first staging of the event. It will be the second time they have met over the best of 19 frames with Wilson winning their other clash when he won the 2015 Shanghai Masters final between the two.
Betting
There is no doubt that the longer that this week has gone on the better Kyren Wilson has got. He showed flashes of his best stuff prior to then but he seemed to find some real confidence in the way he won the final three frames against Jimmy Robertson in the last 16 and he hasn’t really looked back since then. He had to battle a little to get the better of Ronnie O’Sullivan in the semi-final but the way he withstood the Rocket comeback was impressive and it tells me he is capable of winning this match.
I didn’t fancy Wilson in that match so the fact he came through it is a positive. While Trump can now win in a number of ways, I still think it is a sign of when he is and isn’t at his best when he is scoring well and when he isn’t. He made 10 centuries in winning the Shanghai Masters when he was clearly firing on all cylinders but he hasn’t hit one this week. In fact, he has only made four breaks over 70 and given that he faces a tougher test here that might find him out. At 7/4 I think Wilson could be value to come out on top in this one and put his losing run against Trump to bed.
Tips
Back K.Wilson to beat J.Trump for a 3/10 stake at 2.75 with Boylesports
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