Shanghai Masters 2012 - re-match final between Trump and Higgins

Judd Trump lands in final

We have a re-match final on our hands, after Judd Trump beat Mark Williams 6-4 and John Higgins prevailed over Shaun Murphy 6-3 in today's Shanghai Masters semi-finals.

Judd Trump and John Higgins are meeting again into a major ranking event final, as both of them won their semis match and will be interesting to see if Judd will managed to revenge his 2011 World Championship final loss, or if the history will repeat itself and Higgins will be crowned champion again.

The first semi-final of the day saw Judd Trump taking of Mark Williams in what turned out to be a pretty dramatic match.

It was a series of 62 and 82 breaks that offered Trump the first two frames of the English-Wales snooker meeting, but the third one was entering Williams' pocket after Trump stopped his break at 53, thus the Welshman clearing with a 79 in order to win his first frame of the day.

Still, Trump didn't seem affected by it as he stormed in with runs of 76, 62 and 82 and took no less than three consecutive frames, being now just one away from victory.

Little could be done in this type of situation, but Williams is no ordinary snooker player so he fought back. It was with just a top break of 66 that the "Welsh potting machine" put together his comeback plan at 5-4 and was eager to force the decider.

Unfortunately for him though, a missed long red at the beginning of the 10th frame brought Trump at the table, whose 58 break was also the one that saw the finality of the match. Trump was once more a finalist.

For Higgins, the real battle begins tomorrow

The second semi-final has featured the names of Shaun Murphy and John Higgins and until one point was a very balanced match that gave the impression it might just go all the way until the last frame. But it didn't.

Murphy has broken the ice with two beautiful breaks of 60 and 59, thus winning the first frame, but Higgins's response came as soon as possible under the form of an 82 break. 

The Scotsman didn't stop here and with a 66 took control of the match at 2-1, but as he interval kicked off the lads were once more on a tight result, at two a piece, thanks to Murphy's 53 break.

At returning into the arena, Murphy seemed more composed and determined to win, while Higgins missed the opportunity to take the lead once more. It was 3-2.

But the scoreline didn't seem to favour the Englishman for too long, as a totally back-on-track Higgins hit in breaks of 70, 41, 35, 94, 135 (the highest break of the tournament so far) and a 54 to win fair and square at 6-3.

Tomorrow a real battle of cues, but also of nerves, will catch the eyes of millions of snooker fans from all around the world, as two of the greatest snooker players will face each other in the final of the Shanghai Masters 2012 edition.

The first to win 10 frames will be declared champion and will be going home with a cheque of £75,000. Who will it be?

7am
F1: John Higgins v Judd Trump

12.30pm
F2: John Higgins v Judd Trump
*all hours are UK time

TV coverage:
18:15 - 20:00 British EuroSport
21:00 - 22:45 British EuroSport 2