Trump is European Masters champion

Judd Trump beat Ronnie O'Sullivan 9-8 in a cracking final held at the Globus Circus from Bucharest, Romania, in order to lift his first ranking title this season - the European Masters.

In a final refereed by the German Marcel Eckardt, both players displayed tremendous cue action and wonderful shots selection, in other words a genuine snooker show.

Everything started in a pretty classical way, with the lads sharing frames, until O'Sullivan used breaks of 53 and 62 to fly at 3-1 up.

Trump managed to pull back one with a gorgeous break of 120, but as the first session was coming to an end "The Rocket" was sure to restore his two-frame advantage with runs of 59, 44 and 55, for a 5-3 lead.

In all fairness, Judd was in an extreme attacking mood, the balls being hit at full speed and this causing him to either miss of lose position.

But all that changed when the evening session started and we saw a more composed and chill-out Judd Trump.

Breaks of 47, 36, a brilliant 105 clearance and a 67 were enough to restore the balance of the match. It was game on!


But O'Sullivan was also in great form, the five-time world champion firing a perfect 93 and a 72 to go back into the lead, at 7-6.

The 14th frame proved to be quite huge, as both players took their time at the table. It was a under-pressure, scrappy snooker affair which Ronnie won with runs of 42 and 33 to go just one away from victory, 8-6.

However, "Bristol-boy" had other plans and so he cleared the table with an outstanding 109 to which he added a 48 to force the decider.

What more could you wish for? The inaugural edition of the European Masters had two great players in the final and all will be decided in the last frame.

It didn't took Trump much time to cue a winning 74 break (and puff his cheeks in sign of relief) in order to put his name on the trophy.

In the press conference after the match, Trump said he got a bit frustrated when his opponent managed to draw level at six apiece, but kept going and managed to cope with the pressure.


I took the liberty of asking the man if he has his eyes set on any tournament in particular his season and he said:

"I think that at the start of the season I set my target to win two ranking events. I won one now, so maybe I'll try to win a bigger event like the World Championship or the Masters."

At the opposite corner, O'Sullivan was gracious in defeat congratulating his opponent in dealing tremendously well with the pressure and for his unique way of playing.

So, after seven day of snooker madness (a beautiful madness, though) we have a champion in the person of Judd Trump and such a great, great set of memories.

But the show much go on so without any further ado, let's crack on with the English Open show in Manchester!

Photos credit: Lewis Ward