Neil Robertson has won one of the most prestigious snooker tournaments of the year, the UK Championship, and is a member of the so-called Triple Crown as well as the World and Masters Championships. In Sunday night’s final, he defeated Australian Judd Trump by 10: 9 amidst amazing excitement.
The sides played a close match, and no player was able to gain an advantage greater than a margin. This is no coincidence: both snooker players love to build great breaks. In a double-on-two job, Robertson took the lead with a break of 103, and after Trump drew, the Aussie also pushed out a break of 110, giving him the advantage again. England snooker leveled the tie again, then won in the first frame of the second stage – which lasted nearly 40 minutes – which led them to the final for the first time.
However, Robertson reversed and then came in at the 14th margin, which once again brought amazing excitement: After more than an hour of play – and plenty of safety shocks – Trump turned the job to 7: 7. In fact, he took the lead after that, but stopped Robertson took advantage of break 115 –
This was the 13th century break for the Australian in the Championship, a record.
The world leader came close to victory over his lead with a 9: 8 ratio, but Robertson found himself again, and that was a crucial margin. Trump had a chance to win this time too, but he spoiled the main pink, putting Robertson in a position – the Australian greeted him kindly, took advantage of the ziccer and won the UK championship.
For the third time in his career, Neil Robertson won in York after 2013 and 2015. World-ranked Trump – who won the championship in 2011 – slipped the World Cup Finals for a second time to 9: 10, as in 2014 Ronnie O’Sullivan also proved to be an eccentric.
(Cover photo by Neil Robertson. Photo: John Walton / Getty Images Hungary)