Trump surely has to win this one just to regain some mental composure. He sinks an extremely awkward pink and that’ll make him feel a bit better.
Now can he make it count? He puts up 43 in a brave break but then misses a pink to the middle, hitting the far corner of the pocket.
Had he sunk that, you felt the frame was his. Ronnie is back on the baize but after a break of 26, is undone by a clutch of three reds. He can only get one out.
Here come the safety shots! But no… it’s a foul and a miss from Trump who leaves a free ball.
That’s just what the Rocket needs. But again, after taking the lead in this frame, the two reds towards the bottom right are his undoing. Instead of potting the brown, he goes for a snooker.
Trump, trying to lay his own snooker, commits a foul as he goes so close to a kiss off the two reds. Ronnie requests a respot after taking a look at his options.
This time, Trump gets the kiss. This is a massive – and tense – passage of play this. Ronnie frees up one red and then, snookered on his next visit, touches the yellow. That foul makes it 49-47.
He tries the other red this time, but it’s another foul. 51-49 Trump, now.
But using the spider, Judd can’t sink the red. Ronnie can after some beautiful swerve and then snookers his opponent on the last red.
The pressure’s on the Juddernaught and wow, just wow, he puts the final red down. He has the chance to wrap up this 25-minute frame but leaves himself such a tricky shot on the brown.
It looks like it will drop from a tight angle, but it doesn’t. And Ronnie cleans up to move one frame away. Agony for Judd in these last two frames.
