Champion of Champions

Judd Trump sailed into the final with a ruthless 6-0 trouncing of Kyren Wilson

John Higgins has beaten Yan Bingtao 6-5 in a late night thriller to reach the final.
It was a high quality encounter to set up a Trump v Higgins final.

Had all the makings of a late nighter from early on. Revenge for the Masters. Hopefully the final will be good too.

Higgins kept it to just 5-4 behind after the 1st session, but Trump went into overdrive in the evening and won comfortably.

This year's event kicks off on Monday in Bolton on ITV4.

Mark Selby has emerged as winner of group 4.
He beat Lee Walker comfortably before seeing off John Higgins 6-4 in a high quality match in the evening.

That was one of the highest quality best of eleven matches I have seen, it was worthy of a final.

A dramatic second day.

In the first group semi final outsider Fan Zhengyi came from 2-3 down to knock out the big favourite Neil Robertson 4-3.

Then Ryan Day knocked in a classy 86 to beat Kyren Wilson in a deciding frame.

The group final was another superb encounter.
Fan rolled in a brilliant 135 for 1-0 before Day strung together some fine breaks of his own to lead 3-1. Back came Fan with three frames in a row including a sensational 130.
Fan seemed on course for a big break in frame 8 with a 147 a real possibility.
However he conservatively pulled back to choose blue over black on 57 and missed a sitter from which Day staged a tremendous clearance for 4-4.
Fan hit the front again with aggressive play to lead 5-4.
Back came Day to force a decider with a gutsy 93 clearance before Fan sealed victory with a couple of decisive contributions.

Sensational match.

Pleased for Fan, he seemed a bit walloped at the interval. Shows comebacks can be done.

Allen seemed competitive at the start of his match with Trump, but when I looked back after around half an hour, he was 2-0 down. Trump went on to finish the job 6-1