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Ding Junhui sees off Judd Trump to progress in World Championship

Ding Junhui in action during his match against Judd Trump during the World Snooker Championship
Image: Ding Junhui in action during his match against Judd Trump during the World Snooker Championship

Judd Trump crashed out of the World Snooker Championship at the second-round stage in Sheffield on Monday after failing to claw back an overnight deficit against Ding Junhui.

The former finalist resumed 10-6 behind and despite staging a valiant fightback to pull within two frames of his Chinese opponent, he had left too much to recover and fell to a 13-10 defeat.

Ding, forced to qualify this year after falling out of the world's top 16, looked set to cruise into the last eight after winning two of the first three frames to move within one of victory.

But Trump's gradual recovery seemed to unsettle his opponent until a messy 23rd frame eventually fell the way of Ding to book the fourth last-eight place of his career.

Afterwards Trump denied his social media activity had been a factor in his defeat, having sent a number of tweets during mid-session intervals earlier in the tournament including one taking issue with comments made by fellow professional and current television commentator Dominic Dale.

Trump said: "It worked when I was 7-6 down to (Liang) Wenbo - I came back and played really well and I didn't miss a ball.

"This time I lost because Ding was the better player - there's no other reason. I don't want to drain myself thinking about the game all day, every day."

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Responding specifically about his reaction to Dale's comments about his perceived lack of cue ball control, Trump added: "I just think it's a little bit wrong of him to say that during a game.

"You don't chat about people's techniques or stuff like that, you let them get on with it. But I would never win a game if I was thinking about stuff that is happening off the table, so me losing had nothing to do with that."

Rising star Kyren Wilson also reached the quarter-finals after holding his nerve to see off Northern Ireland's Mark Allen in the other match in the afternoon session.

Judd Trump during day nine of the Betfred Snooker World Championship
Image: Trump was beaten 13-10 by Ding

Wilson resumed with an 11-5 advantage but Allen raised hopes of completing a spectacular fightback as he took the first four frames of the session to move within two.

But breaks of 51 and 71 secured a superb 13-9 victory for Wilson, the world No 19, who will now go through to face world No 1 Mark Selby in the quarter-finals.

Afterwards Wilson, who began his meteoric rise by winning the Shanghai Masters as a lowly world number 54 last year, set his eyes on the bigger prize of emulating Shaun Murphy's stunning title triumph in 2005.

Wilson said: "It was obviously a fantastic achievement the way Shaun blitzed everyone with his sensational potting, so he's proved that it's possible and I'd love to add myself to that list.

"That match took a lot of mental strength but I think it set me up nicely for the next round. I've shown I can mix it, I can flow and I can battle. What ever my opponent throws at me I'm capable of dealing with it."

Wilson, who faces world number one Mark Selby in the last eight, added: "There's only eight players left in the tournament and any one of the eight can still win it. I'm here to win it now and I was here to win it from the start."

Kyren Wilson during day nine of the Betfred World Championship
Image: Kyren Wilson saw off Mark Allen to make the quarter-finals

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