Trump wins snooker World Championship final, completes Grand Slam

LONDON: England´s Judd Trump defeated John Higgins 18-9 to win snooker´s World Championship final at Sheffield´s Crucible Theatre on Monday.

Victory gave Trump, beaten in the 2011 final by Scotland´s Higgins, his maiden world title and saw him join the list of snooker players to have completed a career Grand Slam following previous successes in the UK Championship and Masters tournaments.

Higgins´s defeat meant the four-time world champion had now lost the last three Crucible finals.

Trump was on the brink of victory at 16-9 when Monday´s evening session got underway and the 29-year-old made quick work of securing the two frames he required to be crowned champion with breaks of 94 and 62.

Trump had been outstanding in winning eight frames in a row on Sunday to establish a 12-5 overnight lead against Higgins.

But the impressive overall standard of both players in this match was shown by an afternoon session on Monday that started with Higgins nearly achieving a maximum break of 147 and ended with Trump just falling short of the landmark.

The 43-year-old Higgins potted all 15 reds, including an outlandish double on the last, as he closed in on a maximum before missing a relatively simple black.

Higgins then won the next as well to reduce the deficit to 12-7.

But Trump, who had needed a final frame to beat Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and then came from behind in his second-round match with China´s Ding Junhui, stopped Higgins´ fightback with a brilliant 101.

It was his fifth century break of the match.

Trump then produced a composed break of 71 following a poor break-off shot by Higgins as he moved into a 14-7 lead at the mid-session interval.

Trump maintained his form when the match resumed, potting a brilliant opening long red and playing several superb positional shots in a commanding break of 126.

Higgins, with breaks of 67 and 70, at least avoided losing the match with a session to spare before Trump finished the afternoon´s play in style.

There seemed little prospect of a 147 when Trump, on 80, was left with a tough angle on the black and easier colours available to him.

But he made no mistake with a difficult pot and completed yet another century break before narrowly missing a tough red to the left middle pocket.