Trump takes control of semi

JUDD Trump dominated the early stages of his World Championship semi-final with Mark Williams to take a commanding 7-1 lead at the Crucible.

Trump’s long potting was a constant theme of a scrappy opening session as three-time champion Williams struggled to find any sort of fluency.

The Welshman’s only success came in a long fourth frame, and he appeared unhappy with the table at the end of it when he rolled a ball down the cloth to check its condition.

Following a rerack in the opening frame, Williams’ misery began when he went into a bunch of reds after potting a blue and one of them ended in the bottom pocket.

Trump, the 2019 world champion, took advantage with 49 in reply before a long brown after some safety exchanges sealed the frame.

Successive breaks of 70, the first one benefiting from another Williams in-off, gave Trump a 3-0 lead before Williams took a see-saw fourth frame.

It was the same story, however, after the interval as Trump prospered from range and opened up a 6-1 lead.

Trump was looking increasingly confident and produced breaks of 53 and 41 to extend his lead to six, leaving Williams with a mountain to climb in today’s second session.

Ronnie O’Sullivan rallied with two century breaks to draw level at 4-4 with John Higgins in their semi-final.