Judd Trump v Neil Robertson live stream | Tour Championship Semi-Final preview
Trump and Robertson face off in Manchester (Credit: PA Images)
Judd Trump collides with Neil Robertson in a mouth-watering opening semi-final at the Tour Championship in Manchester on Friday.
The world number one and the tournament’s top seed go head to head over the best of 19 frames at the Manchester Central, with a place in Sunday’s final at stake.
Trump, a three-time semi-finalist, is hoping to move a step closer to adding his name to the roll of honour, on which Robertson is the only player whose name appears twice.
The Ace arrived in Manchester having failed to win a match at the exclusive event since 2020, and looked set for another early exit at 4-0 down against Mark Allen in round one.
However, he recovered to eventually prevail a 10-8 winner, before holding his nerve to edge out Shaun Murphy 10-9 in a tense quarter-final clash.
Trump is now set to appear in his fourth semi-final from six events in 2026, and has won four of his last five meetings with Robertson – most recently a 6-3 victory in the last four of this season’s UK Championship.
Robertson was effectively the first player to assure his place at the Tour Championship back in August, when he landed the bumper £500,000 top prize for triumphing at the lucrative Saudi Arabia Masters.
Aided by that, he is also the top seed for this tournament, which he won in 2021 and 2022 – recovering from 9-4 down to beat John Higgins 10-9 in the latter final.
The Thunder, who was also runner-up to Ronnie O’Sullivan in 2019, was absent from the event in 2023 and 2024, though his return 12 months ago was short-lived after he was demolished 10-1 by Mark Selby.
Robertson found himself trailing Barry Hawkins 8-6 having led 5-3, but bounced back to win the last four frames and scrape through to his sixth semi-final of the campaign.
It is set to be a blockbuster first semi-final at the Manchester Central, where either Higgins or World champion Zhao Xintong await the victor in the final.
The match breaks off at 1pm BST on Friday with the opening eight frames, before resuming at 7pm and playing to a conclusion at the Manchester Central.
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