EPTC 1 - the last day

03:31:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

Judd Trump won his first ranking-title
An amazing day here in Germany, where the new Paul Hunter Classic/EPTC 1`s champion is the youngster Judd Trump!!! Judd, or better to call him "Juddernaut" (for every respectable snooker player has a nickname :P) has come a long way to reach the finale, but the beautiful trophy, the 10.000 euros prize, the 2.000 ranking points and the admiration of the entire world I think were quite the reward, for the 21 year-old kid. :)) He has made a spectacular start, whitewashing Michael Judge (4-0), beating Peter Ebdon 4-2 and defeating Andrew Pagett 4-0 to reach the last 16. Here, he beat the Scott Anthony McGill 4-2 and crashed the 19 year-old Jack Lisowski in the quarter finales 4-0. The semi-final was the one in which he beat defending champion Shaun Murphy 4-2 to reach the finale and play against Anthony Hamilton. Anthony was leading 3-1, when Judd made a remarkable comeback and won 4-3; he hit in breaks of 69, 97, 40 and 52.


The snooker legends, always on duty
The snooker legends, Steve Davis and Jimmy White, didn’t pass through the QF`s, unfortunately. Steve was defeated 4-1 by Shaun Murphy and Jimmy lost 4-2 to Daniel Wells. But their performance here at the EPTC 1 event was more than words can express. Those two were on fire! And it’s amazing to see Steve play so damn good at his age (53) and Jimmy’s comeback to rock the show! Some time ago, "The Nugget" declared that he wasn’t giving 100% to the game as before, but he still very much enjoys playing snooker and fells like he still has something to offer the game. Also, in a BBC`s interview Jimmy (who was part of the "I’m a celebrity" reality-show in 2009) said, that in the Australian jungle, after a hard day, when he could stay and watch the stars, he realized how much he still loves this sport, to compete and to win. Now, those two are one of the best examples of ambition and inner-strength and for that it is impossible not to adore them. :))


But back to the EPTC "race", I have to say that for Judd this victory also means his first victory in a ranking event. It’s true, the PTC series are rated as a minor raking events, but I think for the guy who beat big names like Ronnie O`Sullivan or Mark Williams, this victory represents a wonderful reward for a life-time dedicated to snooker (the kid plays snooker from the age of five!!!). Congratulations mate and hope to see you winning more and more tournaments! :)


Yesterday was such a crazy day, for both worldsnooker.com and global-snooker.com were late on updating the scorelines. So "the blogger world" was crazy and very pissed off! "The crazy gang" was due to find someone on Twitter who is in Germany and more important, who’s attending the event. I really want to thank the Dutch referee, Jan Verhaas, for he was the one who kept us updated by the minute on what was going on at the grand finale. Without his help, we would probably still have to wait for the results. Also, he uploaded a photo from the event.:)


So another month of snooker is ending, but not to worry for tomorrow I shall post the main events due to take place in September. :)

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