Judd Trump vs. Martin Gould: World Snooker Championship 2011 – Second round preview
Youngster Judd Trump will go head-to-head against compatriot Martin Gould in the second round of the World Snooker Championship 2011 at the Crucible Theatre on Thursday, April 21, 2011.
Both Englishmen defeated their first-round opponents, Neil Robertson and Marco Fu respectively with the same score line of 10-8.
Many speculations were made about the Trump-Robertson match before it started on the April 16. However, Trump edged past Robertson after a nail-biting encounter at the Crucible. The defending champion, Robertson from Australia, faced a tremendous fight back
from the China Open winner Judd Trump.
Trump led in the first session of the match with the score line of 5-4 smashing a couple of sensational breaks of 122 and 54. On the other hand, Robertson showed a classy display in his four frames firing outstanding knocks of 72, 79, 127 and 100.
The second session began with the Australian’s dominance as he grabbed three early frames with impressive breaks of 58 and 90 to move within one frame lead at 6-7. Trump bounced back in the later part of the session with stunning breaks of 67, 75, 53 and
83 to clinch his first-round victory and book his spot against the 29-year-old Gould.
On the other hand, Martin Gould beat Hong Kong’s Marco Fu in the same manner with the score line of 10-8. The first session of the match was Fu-dominated as the world number 16 succeeded to unsettle the Englishman with some fine clearances of 70, 97, 81,
63, 115 and 56 to grab a three-frame lead at 3-6.
However, the situation changed in the second session after the Pinner Potter, Gould, sprang back with five consecutive frame wins at 75-38, 91-33, 71-3, 103-0 and 75-30 to strengthen his position in the game and gain a two frame lead at 8-5.
Fu did not let Gould take control of the match either. He played some extraordinary snooker shots to grab back-to-back frames with two brilliant knocks of 60 and 100 and pulled level at 8-8. The world number 24 Gould took the match as he sparked his cue
stick to clear the table in the next two frames with the frame score of 90-6 and 82-15 to paddle himself into the second round and set a Trump clash on Thursday.
Odds and statistics
The youngster Judd Trump has been in a great form after he grabbed his first ranking title at the Bank of Beijing China Open 2011. His victory against the defending champion proved him one of the top contenders of the title. His performance in the current
season is also worth appreciation as he has taken 43 match wins out of 60 with a wonderful winning rate of 71.7 per cent while his frame-winning ratio is 59.8 per cent.
On the other hand, Gould’s performance is a bit lower than that of Trump. He clinched 41 matches out of 60 in the current season with a match-winning percentage of 68.3 and his frame wins are 212 out of 371 with 57.1 per cent of frame-winning rate.
Head-to-head
Both cuemen have gone head-to-head only once before in the Players Tour Championship Grand Final where Gould beat Trump 4-2.
However, the first session of their match at the Crucible has been completed with Trump leading two frames at 5-3. Trump surely has the capability to make major upsets as he did in his first match against Neil Robertson. The critics are already dubbing him
as the second Ronnie O’Sullivan.
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