In the Northern Ireland Open final, Judd Trump defeated Chris Wakelin with a commanding 9-3 score to win his third consecutive ranking title.
Trump, the third-ranked player in the world, has now won 20 straight games.
His victories in Wuhan and the English Open are followed by his triumph in Belfast.
With a commanding 6-2 lead following the afternoon session, the Englishman went on to win the Alex Higgins Trophy four times in the evening with three centuries in four frames.
He became the fifth player, following Ray Reardon, Stephen Hendry, Steve Davis, and Ding Junhui, to win three straight ranking titles.
With this £80,000 haul, Trump’s earnings from his three trophy runs now total £330,000.
The 34-year-old won the opening frame, but Wakelin, a fellow countryman, rallied to lead 2-1 at the
whole 20-match run, I felt really sharp.”
He now sits fifth on the all-time list of ranking event winners, nudging ahead of Mark Williams. Ronnie O’Sullivan heads the list with 39 titles.
In just his second ranking event final, Wakelin, 31, was aiming to win his first ranking multi-frame tournament, but the match quickly got away from him.
Trump had emerged victorious from the previous eleven meetings in this rivalry, and by the end of the afternoon session, breaks of 51, 97, 63, and 96 had given him a 6-2 lead.
With breaks of 101, 125, and 129, the 2019 world champion put an end to Wakelin’s hopes of a comeback and secured the 26th ranking title.
“Over the last three weeks, things have happened so fast,” Trump stated. Now that it hasn’t really clicked, it feels strange. I felt the best I have in a long time after tonight’s last session.
