By Elliott West
“Its just you lose the belief when you lose these close games but to finish how I did, I’m so proud of myself”.
Judd Trump
Introduction
One of the greatest experiences you can have is to watch live snooker. If you haven’t, try it! I have been going to the Masters for quite a few years now and yesterday I got to experience one of the tensest matches I have witnessed. This was a battle between an Englishman and a man from Northern Ireland. It was of course the match between Judd Trump and Mark Allen. A draw that put two players against each other who are pretty evenly matched, both producing exciting and punchy snooker. A match that blew victory into each player’s corner several times.
The Match
There wasn’t much between these two in the first part of the match with both players sharing the first four frames to make it 2-2. Judd made two breaks of 101 and Mark made a 92. From then on, for a short spell, Allen dominated the table and a beleaguered Trump had to suffer in his chair as the Northern Irishman mounted a lead. Perhaps you could have said at this stage that Judd was shot as he stared into space but maybe that was a good thing because it seemed to steady his mind and brought him back to earth. This led to a fightback and Judd evened it up to bring the match back to 4-4.
It looked like Trump had the momentum when he made a 135 break and seized the lead at 5-4 but a scrappy frame ensued and Judd wasn’t able to get going. This allowed Allen to regroup and force a deciding frame. However it wasn’t to be for Mark as the play that gets in early, usually seizes the decider and in this case, it was Judd. Producing a magical last break, an exhausted Englishman crossed the line and sent Trump fans wild in the audience. This was a match that needed bottle and on the day there wasn’t much between these two but Judd was the slightly stronger player. Judd Trump will now play Kyren Wilson in the quarter-finals after he also produced a tense deciding frame win against Stuart Bingham in the evening session, beating him 6-5.
