Trump Beats Un-Nooh In Yushan Final

Judd Trump strengthened his status as snooker’s leading player by beating Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 10-5 in the final of the Zhiyuan World Open in Yushan.

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Despite a late rally from Un-Nooh from 8-2 down to 8-5, world number one Trump won comfortably in China to take the £150,000 top prize.

It’s his sixth title within the past year, having also won the Northern Ireland Open, the Masters, the World Grand Prix, the World Championship and the Internantional Championship. From those six events alone he has earned £1.195 million.

Bristol’s 30-year-old Trump has now won 13 ranking titles, bringing him level with Ding Junhui on the all-time list, and just three behind both Mark Selby and Neil Robertson.

Thailand’s 34-year-old Un-Nooh was aiming for his second ranking title having won the Shoot Out earlier this year, but couldn’t produce his free flowing best until it was too late. The £75,000 runner-up prize is still he biggest of his career. He jumps 15 places to 22nd in the world rankings.

After sharing the first two frames, Trump fired breaks of 96, 78, 90 and 85 to lead 5-1. Un-Nooh then made a critical error in the seventh, missing a red three times when he wasn’t snookered, which cost him the frame.

A run of 68 helped put Trump further ahead, though he lost the next on a respotted black to leave the score at 7-2 after the first session.

In the concluding session, Trump moved further ahead with a run of 64, before Un-Nooh pulled one back on the colours then took two more with 80 and 56 to close to 8-5.

But Trump regained the momentum with a superb 136, and sealed the result in frame 15 with breaks of 61 and 36.

“I’m very happy,” said Trump. “I didn’t play that well all week, I won a lot of close games 5-4 and 6-5, and then I played better today. I have worked very hard this season to try to replicate what I did last season. I try to enjoy myself every time I come to China.

“To win two titles already this season and to be number one in the rankings is very good. It puts me in a good position where I can just relax.  I want to win the UK Championship so I can hold all three Triple Crowns at the same time.

“This event is at an excellent new venue, it looks amazing from the outside. The crowds all week have been great, much better than last year.”

Un-Nooh said: “I feel disappointed about my performance, it was a bad day for me. I made a lot of mistakes and gave Judd chances. When I was 7-1 down I had no hope. The frame I lost with three misses, I don’t know why I did it, I felt stupid. Last night I din’t go to sleep until 3am. There was a lot of pressure because it was my first big ranking final and there were two million fans in Thailand watching me.”