Kyren Wilson too good for Judd Trump as he storms to Northern Ireland Open title
Kettering snooker world champion Kyren Wilson is celebrating after he claimed a first BetVictor Northern Ireland Open title on Sunday, hammering world number one Judd Trump 9-3 in the final in Belfast.
Wilson, who is based at Barratts Club in Northampton, was in superb form at the Waterfront Hall, and thrilled the capacity crowd of more than 1,500 fans as the world's top two ranked players battled it out.
It is a second ranking title for Wilson since his world title success at the Crucible in May, following on from winning the Xi’an Grand Prix in China in September.
He also met Trump in that final, winning 10-8, and another close match was expected in Belfast, but Wilson was too good for Trump, to claim an eighth career ranking title.
It meant Wilson claimed the Alex Higgins Trophy and the winners' cheque of £100,000, and in doing so he stopped Trump's attempt to claim a fifth tournament win in Belfast.
Wilson went into Sunday's evening session leading 7-1, needing just two frames for victory, and although Trump pulled it back to 8-3, Wilson wrapped up the match with a 119 break in the 12th frame.
“It feels amazing," said Wilson. "What a venue and what a crowd. They were a pleasure to play in front of.
"The juices were flowing and it was the icing on the cake to walk away with the trophy. It was a mouth watering match for the fans.
"On paper, it doesn’t get better than number one vs number two. Hopefully this is going to be a regular occurrence and we meet in many more finals, for many more years to come.”
And he added: “Winning a final is hard enough, let alone playing the world number one and most consistent player on the tour at the moment.
"To win quite comfortably is very flattering on myself. I have taken away the burden of backing up being World Champion. I’m proving it is no fluke.
“We all know Judd is capable of reeling frames off in a row. It was about doing the right things.
"I turned up an hour before the evening session when nobody would have blamed me for turning up 10 minutes before thinking it was won. You can’t allow that to happen against Judd.”
Trump said: “It was always going to be difficult to come back from 7-1 down, but I got an amazing reception.
"Kyren was too good. The way he has bounced back after winning the World Championship is inspiring. I hope we can have many more battles.”
On his way to the final, Wilson beat David Grace (4-3), Anthony McGill (4-3), Stan Moody (4-1), Mark Williams (5-1) and Junxu Pang (6-4).
He is next due in action on November 3 when he takes on Mitchell Mann in the qualification play-off for the International Championship in China.