Judd Trump v Neil Robertson: English Open final 2020 preview – Ace and Thunder battle for the title
Trump and Robertson go head-to-head (Photo by O.Behrendt via www.imago-images.de/Imago/PA Images)
Judd Trump and Neil Robertson will battle it out in Milton Keynes on Sunday for the right to become the latest new name on the English Open trophy.
The left-handed superstars have swept through the 128-player field at the Marshall Arena this week to reach their first ranking final of the season respectively.
They now face off for the third consecutive time in a major televised final, with Trump looking to continue his emphatic recent record in ranked finals.
The world number one has won his last nine consecutive ranking finals dating back to 2017, and with a record six titles to his name last season, will be keen to open his account at this early opportunity.
Trump started the week with a string of dramatic comebacks, recovering from 3-1 down in each of his opening three matches to defeat Louis Heathcote, Yuan Sijun and Michael Holt 4-3.
He then swept aside Gary Wilson 4-1 in the Last 16 before thrashing rival Kyren Wilson 5-1 in the Quarter-Finals and overcoming John Higgins 6-4 in Saturday’s Semi-Finals.
The 2019 World Champion was denied by Liang Wenbo in the inaugural English Open final four years ago and now looks to go one better to add this Home Nations title to his haul of 17 ranking trophies.
Robertson, meanwhile, finds himself at this stage of the competition for the first time, having enjoyed a relatively comfortable passage into the latter stages in contrast.
The Australian ace whitewashed Lyu Haotian in Round One before defeating Mark Joyce 4-2, Mark Davis 4-1 and Barry Hawkins 4-2 to reach the Last Eight.
There, he ended the run of Robbie Williams with a 5-2 scoreline, before holding his nerve in style with a 92 break in the deciding frame to edge past Mark Selby 6-5.
Robertson is appearing in his 30th ranking final since 2006 as he targets a 19th title and a third of 2020.
His last encounter against Trump resulted in a 9-6 defeat in this year’s German Masters final, prior to which he had edged a 10-9 thriller to claim Champion of Champions glory last November.
The pair have met 22 times in total, with Trump coming out on top on 12 of those occasions.
The 2020 English Open final gets underway from 1pm BST for a total of eight frames before being played to a finish over the best of 17 from 7pm.