Trump breezes into quarters with impressive victory over Ford

Judd Trump wasted no time on Saturday morning, wrapping up a comfortable 13-7 victory over Tom Ford to reach the quarter-finals of the World Snooker Championship.

Speaking ahead of the day’s play, Eurosport’s Alan McManus said that Ford would need to “produce the performance of a lifetime” to stop the relentless juggernaut that was Trump.

Ford certainly made a nervy start. He got on the board first in the opening frame of the session with a lovely pot to middle but he followed that up by immediately missing the black and leaving a wide open table.

Trump, the 2019 world champion, couldn’t capitalise, missing what for him was a relatively simple blue and once again Ford was presented with chances to have a real stay at the table.

At the third attempt, Ford finally put a break together, sinking 76 to seal the frame and give himself a real confidence booster early on.

However, there was another error from Ford in the next after missing a tricky long red and Trump pounced, picking up his second century of the match with a break of 107 (his 78th of the season), to move one away from victory.

Trump had already notched up six half-century breaks as well as a ton in frame nine in the first two sessions.

Trump was in the groove now and even though in the 19th frame his positioning was a bit off, he found creative solutions to his problems with some outrageous potting.

Once again, Ford had a chance due to some small errors from Trump and he took that chance, making Trump wait once more.

But in the 20th frame, Trump wasn’t to be denied, getting on the table and making no mistake with an impressive break of 84.

After dispatching Hossein Vafaei with similar ease in the first round, Trump has sent a real message to his rivals for the title.

In the quarters, he will face either Jak Jones or Si Jiahui. The pair will resume their clash in the middle session on Saturday with Jones 9-7 ahead.

It also still leaves the possibility of a blockbuster semi-final against defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan.