Wembley Masters Qualifying: Tuesday Results

It is the penultimate day of the Masters qualifiers today as both the quarter and semi-finals are completed at the EIS in Sheffield. Click below for updates…

Quarter-Finals:

Bristol’s Judd Trump became the first man to progress to the semi-finals of the Masters qualifiers this morning as he recorded a comfortable 5-1 win over China’s Jin Long. He was never really in trouble as he moved 4-0 ahead at the interval with a number of decent breaks, before Jin got one back when play resumed. Judd though halted any potential comeback with a smart 92 break in frame six and ensured that he would be in the semis.

Soon to join Judd in the semis was the resurgent Ken Doherty who defeated 2005 and 2006 event winner Stuart Bingham in his quarter-final match. Stuart started off well enough with a break of 81 in the opener, but from then on it was all Ken as his breaks included runs of 67, 64, 78 and a final 69 to seal his win. The fifth frame of the match seems to have been an interesting one as Ken apparently won that 165-0! This included two big breaks and presumably around 23 penalty points.

Ken and Judd will now meet this evening in what is bound to be a cracking match between an experienced former world champion and his young 19-year-old opponent who has been the form player of the tournament all week. It will be a real test of how Ken is playing because until this tournament things had not gone well at all this season and he looked like going out in round one here when he found himself 3-0 down to Atthasit Mahitthi. His fightback there though seems to have given him a lot of confidence as he has won his next two matches much more comfortably and it will be interesting to see if he can keep it up against Judd.

Meeting in the other semi meanwhile will be recent Bahrain finalist Matthew Stevens, and the surprise package in Mark Joyce who won a dramatic final frame decider against Andrew Higginson earlier today. There was never more than a frame in it between Mark and Andrew but in the end Joyce took it with a break of 57 in frame nine.

He will be the underdog tonight against Stevens who also had a tough match against Fergal O’Brien earlier today, but jut about came through 5-3. Hopefully Joyce can keep up his good form and give us a good match.

Judd Trump 5-1 Jin Long 71(36,35)-63(59), 62(30)-36, 79(57)-1, 88(40,44)-0, 34-64(51), 101(92)-0

Stuart Bingham 1-5 Ken Doherty 100(81)-27, 19-68(67), 34(34)-65(47), 27-64(38), 0-165(64,78), 1-69(69)

Matthew Stevens 5-3 Fergal O’Brien 115(89)-5, 6-71(49), 67(45)-9, 40-65(64), 74-31, 68-73(54), 115(115)-0, 69-26

Mark Joyce 5-4 Andrew Higginson 125(125)-0, 40-70, 35-97, 96(88)-19, 79-44, 0-78, 74-44, 32-63, 97(57)-0

Semi-Finals:

Judd Trump tonigth became the first man into the final of the Masters qualifying tournament with an excellent 5-2 win over 1991 winner Ken Doherty. In what was an excellent match, Ken was by no means disgraced as he hit breaks of 66 and 92 to win the frames he did, but the outstanding Trump was just too good. With visits of 52, 43, 120, 66 and 67, he was clearly in great form and fully deserves his spot in the final.

It is excellent to see Judd really fulfilling his huge potential this season and it would be nice to see him among the world’s elite at Wembley where he could do some real damage given the right draw.

He has one more match to go though and in it he will face the surprise package of the tournament so far in Mark Joyce who held his nerve brilliantly to see off Matthew Stevens 5-4.

After a fast start and a break of 101 from Matthew, Joyce went on four frame winning streak to look like causing yet another shock this week, having already seen off players like last year’s winner Barry Hawkins and Andrew Higginson early on today. Stevens though showed all of his experience and recent good form by taking the next three to level it at 4-4, and surely go favourite to win the match and book a final spot. It was not to be though as Joyce won the all-important ninth frame and his third frame 5-4 match of the week.

He will go into tomorrow’s final with Trump as the underdog but having already seen off Peter Lines, Barry Hawkins, Kuldesh Johal, Andrew Higginson and Matthew Stevens, he has shown that he is more than capable of beating strong opposition when put in front of him. I expect Judd to win, but it won’t be a walk-over. If Joyce does win though, he would become the lowest ranked player to do so since Neil Robertson in 2003.