Judd Trump completes narrow final win over Hong Kong’s Marco Fu to seal Players Championship
Hongkonger goes down to inspired Englishman after tense finale in Wales
Hong Kong’s Marco Fu ka-chun saw his Players Championship hopes go up in smoke as an inspired Judd Trump reeled off a spectacular six frames in a row to claim the title 10-8 in Llandudno, Wales last night.
At the midway point Fu had confidently moved into pole position at 5-2 before Trump began his incredible fightback with clearances of 136 and 115 at the start of his six-frame run.
A shell-shocked Fu managed to find his footing and pull two frames back thanks to a clearance of 52 in the 15th frame, but ruthless Trump, the 2011 world championship runner-up, quelled the fightback with a fourth century break of the match before completing a hugely impressive win.
“It’s a great feeling,” said Trump whose win elevates him to number two in the world rankings. “Especially in this competition. It’s the 16 best players of the season. To win this one is probably up there with the UK Championship. This tournament has a lot of prestige and I’m delighted to have won.”
“I was kind of gone in the afternoon session and missing everything,” the 27-year-old told worldsnooker.com. “I managed from somewhere to make those two centuries and get back into the game. It was a little bit different tonight. The first frame was quite important and I managed to nick that. Then it changed around and he was missing everything.
Fu, the world number nine, was sanguine after another encouraging showing at a ranking event.
“I didn’t do a lot wrong to go from 5-2 to 7-5,” he said. “Judd can win two or three frames in a row with big breaks so that’s not a surprise to me. I was kind of in control but in a long match you need to do a little bit more. Tonight it wasn’t quite enough to beat Judd.”
Fu, who failed to qualify for this month’s China Open in Beijing, will now turn his attention to April’s season-closing World Championship at the illustrious Crucible Theatre in Sheffield where he reached the semi-finals last season.
