Snooker

It looked the comback was going to continue as Ronnie was starting to look good in amongst them until a kick saw him break down on 20 odd but after Judd failed to split the red nicely his counter attack broke down as well. A very poor safety from O'Sullivan allowed Trump a second chance and he took it, guaranteeing a lead going into the evening session with a frame left in the afternoon.

5-2 Trump.

Ronnie gets in first but breaks down again by missing a black off it's spot, albeit akward bridging. Judd fails to take the chance that he's left with. Ronnie gets back to the table and makes a quality double, a great black from tight on the cushion, a tricky red into the middle and then a wonderful split on the last three reds from the black.

Fantastic break to win the final frame of the session.

5-3 Trump going into tonight.

Well going to the mid-session interval, we're all square once again with Ronnie winning three of the four frames so far to level it up at six a piece.

6-6

Ronnie hits the front for the first time in the final.

7-6 O'Sullivan.

Ronnie opens up a two frame lead after Judd misses the final black along the top cushion on the back of a wonderful 40 to put him on the verge of levelling the game back up.

8-6 O'Sullivan.

... Judd that was some miss there!!

The snooker gods weren't shining on Judd in that frame. Two misses at escaping from a snooker from Ronnie and both times left Judd very little. But he had his own chance early in the frame but missed a pink into the middle just as he was starting to look good. He then missed a brown while trying to clean the colours up and rattled it in the jaws, unfortunately is stayed right over the pocket and allowed O'Sullivan to pot the remaining four colours.

One away now Ronnie.

9-6 O'Sullivan.

Shown some character here Judd to keep fighting. Pulls one back.

9-7 O'Sullivan.

There's flukes and there's flukes.

Congratulations Ronnie O'Sullivan on winning the 2024 Grand Prix

To fight back from 4-0 down against a player of Judd's ability is some going, even if the luck was certainly with him throughout the tournament. The semi final against Ding was some of the best snooker you'll ever see.

I don't know if he'll bother with the German Masters or Welsh Open, so the next time we see him might be the Players Championship (which is the top 16 players on the one year list).

Congratulations Ronnie O'Sullivan on winning the 2024 Grand Prix

To fight back from 4-0 down against a player of Judd's ability is some going, even if the luck was certainly with him throughout the tournament. The semi final against Ding was some of the best snooker you'll ever see.

I don't know if he'll bother with the German Masters or Welsh Open, so the next time we see him might be the Players Championship (which is the top 16 players on the one year list).

He just gets it done.....GOAT by a distance.

Remarkable. So great, hot off the back of the Masters as well.

https://youtu.be/JPZScVVHZ84?si=RO0XKdatXlHhVOpr

German Masters starts today and as expected Ronnie has pulled out again - citing medical reasons again.

Couple of other players have also had to pull out of the event. Hossein Vafaei couldn't get a visa for the event and Martin Gould also has cited medical reasons for why he's withdrew.

Couple of the big hitters gone out in the qualifiers.

Selby lost 5-1 to Marco Fu, while Murphy lost 5-3 to Xu Si. Defending champ, Ali Carter, was pushed all the way by Michael White but got over the line in a deciding frame to win 5-4 and set up a match with Peng Yisong.

The rest of the held over qualifiers will take place tonight.

Luca Brecel was the latest big name to go out in the qualifiers as he lost 5-2 to Indian Ishpreet Singh Chadha.

There were convincing wins for Judd Trump and Neil Robertson though, who followed that up with a 5-0 win over Jimmy Robertson this morning. Mark Allen also scraped through with a deciding frame victory over Manasawin Phetmalaikul.

Last 32 of the German Masters is under way and the draw is as follows;

Ali Carter v Pang Junxu
Zak Surety v Elliot Slessor
Sam Craigie v He Guoqiang
Graeme Dott v Xu Si
Mark Allen v Joe O'Connor
John Higgins v Zhou Yuelong
Jamie Clarke v Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Matt Selt v Judd Trump
Julien Leclercq v Jordan Brown
Rob Milkins v Ryan Day
Andrew Pagett v Yuan Sijun
Si Jiahui v Alfie Davies
Neil Robertson v Joe Perry
Kyren Wilson v David Lilley
Tom Ford v Mark Davis
Fan Zhengyi v Ishpreet Singh Chadha

Congratulations Judd Trump on winning the 2024 German Masters

What a season this lad is having, fourth ranking title of the season and his seventh final. He's openly admitted that he wants to win every title, he's not one of these who ranks them in any sort of order other than the World's of course. And it's certainly looking that way.

Undoubtedly the player of the season and quite rightly fighting to be world number one again. He's won twice as much this season than anybody else, with the exception of Ronnie - who has won a couple of the big money tournaments.

Welsh Open starts next week and if Judd decides to enter it, he'll fancy his chances of winning that as well. We've seen this season how good he can be when he gets on a roll. Three tournaments in a row earlier in the season. Back to back finals here, after losing the Grand Prix in January. The Welsh Open is one of the few tournaments he hasn't lifted yet in his career so he'll be wanting to set that right.

Special mention for Si Jiahui as well who reached his first ranking final here. He'll be hoping to build on what's been a consistent season so far and have an even better second half of the campaign.

Gary Wilson hit a maximum last night in his semi final victory over John Higgins. And in todays final he'll play Martin O'Donnell, who beat Elliott Slessor in the other sei.

Congratulations Gary Wilson on winning the 2024 Welsh Open

A good victory for Gary who is becoming a regular winner of tournaments now, especially in the the Home Nations events. He's followed his victory in the Scottish Open with this one in Wales. And is looking good for a seeded spot to the Crucible as one of the World's top 16.

Got a maximum in the semi finals against John Higgins, dominated much of the final against O'Donnell and up until the semi final had dropped just one frame in the opening four rounds. Was certainly the best player of the week and fully deserved his win.

Special mention to Martin O'Donnell as well, whos been around for a while and never really done much in the game. So for him to reach a ranking final is good for the sport in my opinion. Whether he reaches another one in his career remains to be seen but it does show perseverance and hard work do pay off.

Today is the start of the Players Championship, which is the top 16 players on the one year list and Gary Wilson is certainly in that. He goes in at number 4.

Draw in full;

Judd Trump v Chris Wakelin
Ronnie O'Sullivan v Zhou Yuelong
Zhang Anda v Noppon Saengkham
Gary Wilson v Hossein Vafaei
Mark Williams v Mark Allen
Ding Junhui v John Higgins
Barry Hawkins v Mark Selby
Tom Ford v Ali Carter

Gary Wilson played really well, I only watched the evening session, give credit to both players, the final, of this tournament staged in LLandudno, played in a really sporting fashion.

Good players championship final Allen 6 Zhang 6...best of 19. Very close.Allen is not at his best but is zhanging in there..

Could go down to the wire.

Ronnie won the thing in Saudi Arabia, beating Brecel 5-2 in the final.

Next ranking event in the World Open in China, which starts on the 18th. And after that there's only the Tour Championship left before the World's start in April. (we've also got the mixed doubles for four of the big name players - Robertson, Trump, Brecel and Allen)