Premier League 2011 (week five) - Trump makes glorious debut

Trump's back!

Last evening this year's World Championship runner-up Judd Trump shined in the town of Weston-Super-Mare. With a 3-1 scoreline obtained in front of Mark Williams and a perfect 3-0 against Matthew Stevens, Trump becomes Premier League's week five winner.

Judd's debut in this year's Premier League was made in the best possible way: he rocked around the snooker table. And I dare to say I detected that winner sparkle that he kept in his eyes during the 2011 China Open and World Championship. 

Mark Williams - still not in the Premier League "zone"

Although Judd won the first semi-final of the evening by beating Mark Williams 3-1, it can't be said it was an exact "one-way" match. Williams fought as good as he could and if hadn't missed the red ball during the last frame, we would definitely have had a decider. So with breaks of 64, 50 and 24 Trump was booking himself a place in the final.

Just a few minutes after this match the confrontation between John Higgins and Matthew Stevens began; and it had the smell of a partially "history repeated" because Stevens managed once more, as he did during Premier League's week one, to defeat the current world champion. But, the most important thing is that the scoreline wasn't the same and the match was a more thrilling one for it saw all its frames being consumed.

John Higgins' chances to reach the grand semis are slim

With runs of 104 and 46 Stevens was already with one foot and four toes in the final, when Higgins started his comeback under the form of breaks of 57 and 38. No, there weren't the highest breaks of the evening but they definitely did the trick for a 2-2 scoreline. 

The last frame was played under the rule of "Shoot-Out" and with Stevens taking control of the table and stopping his break at 46 with only three minutes left, there wasn't really too much to be done by his opponent. Higgins was defeated 3-2 and at this moment his chances to reach the final stages of the competition seem very slim.

The final had Judd Trump's name written all over it from the very first frame. As soon as he got a chance he potted every key ball in order to win one frame after another. Runs of 38, 81 and 49 seemed enough to freeze the scoreline at 3-0 and get Judd's this week winner title. A very well deserved victory, if I may add.

Matthew Stevens was (again!) whitewashed

So, after five weeks for cue battles and five more to come before we reach the final stages of the Premier League, the provisional rankings look something like this: on first place with 9 mighty points we have Matthew Stevens, on second place we have Ronnie O'Sullivan with 8 points, on third place we have Mark Williams with 7 points, while on forth place we meet with Neil Robertson, Judd Trump and Shaun Murphy, each of them with 6 points. 
John Higgins and his precious 5 points got him the fifth place, while Ali Carter and Ding Junhui are on sixth with only 4 points each. Last on the list is, unfortunately, Jimmy White, the legend being unable to grab any points until now.

Next week the 2011 Premier League will go to Stoke where Mark Williams will face Ali Carter, while Jimmy White take on Ding Junhui.