Congratulations to John Higgins, who has tonight defeated world number one Judd Trump to capture the 2012 Kay Suzanne Memorial Trophy, aka UKPTC4 at the South West Snooker Academy in Gloucester.
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Having defeated Judd Trump to capture the 2011 World Championship and 2012 Shanghai Masters in recent times, Scotland’s John Higgins again showed the world number one that he remains a force to be reckoned with by defeating the man from Bristol 4-2 to capture the Kay Suzanne Memorial Trophy this evening.
It was not without a battle however as following a much longer break away from the table, having defeated Ding Junhui 4-1 in his semi-final hours earlier, Judd opened proceedings with a break of 102, his tenth century at the event, to lead 1-0.
Higgins though, who much like Rod Lawler at the previous PTC had been playing almost constantly all-day, particularly having survived a comeback from 0-3 by opponent Anthony Hamilton in his semi-final before coming through a decider, hit back immediately with a break of 97 to draw level.
The next two frames were also shared as the score moved on to 2-2, but as Higgins won a hard-fought fifth frame, Trump’s resistance looked to have been broken and the Scot duly added the next to secure victory.
His first PTC win since the 2010 EPTC5 event in Germany, the victory earns John 2,000 ranking points and £10,000 which will secure his place at the Grand Finals next year.
Though a defeated finalist, it could have been worse for Judd who earlier on in the day had found himself 3-0 down to Thailand’s Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon, the youngster having made breaks of 93, 109 105 to put the world number one under real pressure.
Joining the non-streamed match at that stage, I was impressed by the way that Trump got himself back into it, pulling one back with a break of 76 following a missed red on 16 from Thanawat, before closing to 2-3 with a total clearance of 123. What was perhaps more impressive however was the way that he turned the screw with his safely, generally refusing to take on some of the do or die shots that you might normally expect from him.
I expect to see that from the likes of Neil Robertson and Mark Selby, but as was the case against Mark Allen in their Premier League match last week, Judd showed that he is continuing to mature as a player and is perhaps better learning when to attack and when to just hold back a little. He eventually completed a 4-3 win as Thanawat broke down on 33 when in with first chance in the decider.
Elsewhere, Anthony Hamilton enjoyed his best run in a while by defeating Michael Wasley and Mark Selby to reach the semi-finals, while Tony Drago and Steve Davis both produced strong performances at the last 16 stage before losing out to Selby and Higgins respectively.
All in all, a good send-off for the South West Snooker Academy if it is not to host professional snooker for a while, but the snooker circuit does not stop as most of the players are now making their way to Sofia for the latest European Tour event which begins tomorrow…