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Terrific Trump dethrones O’Sullivan to reach Shanghai Masters final

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Trump hit four centuries during his thumping win over the Rocket

Judd Trump ended Ronnie O’Sullivan’s seven-year Shanghai Masters reign following a comprehensive 10-3 rout in the semi-finals on Saturday.

Five-time winner O’Sullivan – and four-time reigning champion – had won each of his previous 21 matches at the tournament, last losing to Michael Holt back in 2016.

However, the Rocket came crashing down to earth against an inspired Trump, who hit four centuries on the way to reaching his fourth Shanghai Masters final, where he will play Shaun Murphy on Sunday.

The Ace will now hope to make it fourth time lucky, having lost out on the title in 2012, 2015 and 2017.

Trump had lost each of his last five meetings with O’Sullivan – most recently a 4-1 defeat at this stage of March’s inaugural Saudi World Masters.

But the Ace came flying out of the blocks this time around, with breaks of 128, 127, 106, 91, 82, 71 and 51 opening a dominant 8-1 advantage at the end of the afternoon session.

O’Sullivan looked to respond in the evening with a neat 71 clearance, before taking a close 11th frame after Trump missed the blue when looking to clear for 9-2.

However, it proved a false dawn for the Rocket. The Ace swiftly got back on track with a brilliant break of 110 moving him to the brink of victory, which he sealed by controlling the next frame.

“I knew that I’d lost quite a few times in a row against him,” Trump told WST. “That isn’t a record you want to have. You don’t want him to fancy his chances every time he plays you. It was nice to get one back and show I can still play a little bit.

“Every time you see him win a tournament, you want to have a chance against him. His record in these prestigious invitational events is incredible. Nobody gets close to him in this kind of tournament. He just seems to come in and find his best form every single time. It is nice to see that he can be human sometimes, he struggled a little bit. I’ve got to take a little bit of credit as I put him under a lot of pressure early on.”

On the final, he added: “Shaun is a player I always enjoy facing. He is very attacking. He had an amazing turnaround against Mark Selby. On form it is probably the best two players of the week in the final. It is a game that hopefully everyone will look forward to.”