Young pretender Judd Trump and Wales’s two-time winner Mark Williams eased into the last-four at the Snooker World Championship.
Trump, the 21-year-old Englishman who knocked out defending champion Neil Robertson in the opening round, continued his fine form at the Crucible with a 13-5 quarter-final defeat of last year’s finalist Graeme Dott.
Williams, a former amateur boxer, knocked out Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen by the same scoreline.
Williams and Trump had paved the way to the semi-finals with 11-5 leads overnight, and both secured their tickets with the minimum of fuss when their matches resumed.
For Williams this is his first appearance in the last-four since 2003, the year he won the second of his titles.
“It’s been a long time, eight years. It’ll be nice,” reflected the 36-year-old. “Once it goes down to one table it’s totally different. You’ve got loads of room and that’s when it becomes a real venue. I haven’t been there for so long, I’m looking forward to it.”
Allen left a red hanging over a pocket for Williams in the opening frame yesterday, which proved costly as a 61 break followed.
When Allen missed a sitter of a red at 39-17 ahead in the next, Williams was in to fire a match-clinching clearance of 65.
He meets next either O’Sullivan or Higgins while Trump, a qualifier rated an 80-1 outsider at the start of the competition, will face the winner of the quarter-final between Ding and Selby.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 28th, 2011.
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