Two Grove players meet in the final of a tournament for the first time as Judd Trump beats Ronnie O’Sullivan 4-3 to win of the Acuerate Antwerp Open, at the Lotto Arena in Antwerp.

Picture: Monique Limbos

Judd won a high-quality final which saw seven frames played in just over an hour and ten minutes. Judd knocked in breaks of 68, 69 and 69 to go 3-1 up but Ronnie came back with two breaks of 118 and 132. Judd was fortunate to win the last frame after a fluked red but there can be no question that he deserved his victory overall.

Judd made it through to the final after six straight wins, against Martin O’Donnell 4-1, Craig Steadman 4-2, Jimmy White 4-3, Tom Ford 4-0, John Higgins 4-2 and Martin Gould 4-1. Ronnie also enjoyed six straight wins, against Anthony Hamilton 4-0, Adam Wicheard 4-1, Andrew Norman 4-0, Stephen Lee 4-2, Neil Robertson 4-1 and Graeme Dott 4-1.

The tournament also saw Ronnie and Judd rise to numbers 1 and 2 respectively in the PTC Order of Merit.

Of the other Grove players, Jack Liswoski had a great event too, making the quarter finals after starting with a good 4-2 win against world no 25 Marcus Campbell, and then beating Liu Song 4-1, Andrew Pagett 4-2 and David Morris 4-0 before losing to world no 10 Graeme Dott 2-4. Fellow Grove player Liu Song was unfortunate to meet Jack in the second round after enjoying an excellent first round victory against world no 26 Joe Perry, 4-3.

Both Chen Zhe and Zhang Anda successfully negotiated their way through amateur qualifying on Thursday, and what’s more they did so with a perfect 4-0 record in each match. Zhe beating Kristof de Bruyn and Patrick Geysels, Anda beating Pierre Dethier and Reanne Evans. Zhe was then defeated 1-4 by James Wattana in the first round proper on Friday morning and Anda lost 2-4 to Andrew Norman at the same stage. Yu Delu also lost in the first round, 1-4 to Ireland’s David Hogan.