The first of today’s two semi-finals has just been completed up in Glasgow. Click below to read how John Higgins and Judd Trump got on…
John Higgins 6-4 Judd Trump
John Higgins edged a high quality affair with Judd Trump to reach the Grand Prix final for the first time since he won it in 2005 today.
Both players looked edgy early on as the match got off to a scrappy start but it was the 19-year old who took it on the colours to go 1-0 up. With John making a poor break-off in frame two it looked as if Judd would have a great chance to extend his lead but surprisingly he missed an easy pot to right centre and Higgins eventually took advantage to level it at 1-1.
Indeed this marked the start of a four frame winning streak for John as Judd just couldn’t get going, his pot success being down around 80% which is rarely going to be enough to win a ranking event semi-final. Higgins was not exactly playing great, but he made fewer mistakes and solid breaks of 51, 65, 91 and 78 made it 4-1.
At this point I was starting to think that it was match over as Judd just couldn’t seem to perform, with long pots going astray and some poor positional shots when he did get in, but he was ready to prove me wrong as he came right back at Higgins. His position still wasn’t great but his potting was improving as he put in a lovely break of 79 to keep in touch.
Higgins was beginning to look more and more troubled as a couple more errors let Judd put enough points on the board to bring it back to 4-3. He needed no help at all in frame eight though, a stunning long red giving him the opportunity to win a frame in one visit for the first time all day, doing so with an impressive 80.
Level again at 4-4, John could have been forgiven for feeling the pressure but in his 45th ranking semi-final today, the Scot showed the value of all that experience in a situation as tight as this and upped his game considerably. A mistake from Judd let him in to make to 61 before a missed red in the final frame allowed him to make a sublime break of 83 to seal the match.
It was a great match and three times Grand Prix winner Higgins was visibly delighted to be through to his first ranking event final since the World final in 2007. In front of his home crowd he seemed to thrive on the support and though I have seen him play better, he’s always a tough man to beat and has every chance of taking title number 19 tomorrow.
Judd will be disappointed to have lost today but what a week he has had. The scary thing is that he has done so well without even playing as well as he has shown he can do in the qualifiers. Still though, these results on TV will undoubtedly give him a big confidence boost and perhaps we might start to see more of him over the rest of the season. A place in the top 32 is certainly within reach now too.