Judd Trump will now be a strong favourite to book his place in this year’s Northern Ireland Open final after his impressive form continued on quarter-final day. 

The Bristol Ace produced two stunning breaks to beat Welshman Ryan Day 5-3 this afternoon.

The world number five will meet either Peter Ebdon or Scotland’s Eden Sharav in Saturday’s semi-final.

The past twelve months has been a real difficult time for 2011 World Championship finalist Trump as he has failed to bring silverware back home in that period.

His last trophy of any kind came around 14 months ago when he lifted the European Masters trophy in the autumn of 2017.

In fact in last year’s Northern Ireland Open he exited the tournament in angrily fashion by deliberately smashing the balls up with his cue to concede the match.

But the Belfast crowd are seeing a much different side to Trump this year – and it is the side that many inside the game love about him.

Now he stands just two more wins away from winning a big ranking event once again and is showing the crowd that he is playing his best and natural snooker again – with plenty of fine attacking play going his way.

How Trump finished the match against Day was back to the Judd Trump of old.

He won the contest by playing the so called ‘naughty snooker’, which he famously branded his own style during his most successful period as a professional several years ago.

Trailing 3-2, Trump hit back winning three frames on the bounce and turned the match around with a brilliant break of 66 before clinching the match with a stylish run of 120.

He has shown this kind of form throughout recent days with fine wins against the likes of Luca Brecel, Jack Lisowski and Stuart Carrington.

And speaking to Eurosport after his latest win, Trump revealed he was working more on the practice table after seeing his close friend Jack Lisowski’s game improve to significant levels over the course of 2018.

Meanwhile, world number one Mark Selby made six breaks of 50 and more in a 5-3 victory over Thailand’s talented star Thepchaiya Un-Nooh.

Selby could meet his arch rival Ronnie O’Sullivan in the semi-finals should The Rocket beat David Gilbert in tonight’s quarter-final clash.

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