by Tom Young
JUDD Trump overcame an early scare to see off a spirited challenge from Igor Figueiredo and advance to the last 16 of the Welsh Open in Cardiff.
After falling behind early, Trump rattled off four frames in quick succession to breeze to a 4-1 victory and set up a tantalising clash with former world number two Stephen Maguire, which will take place this evening.
It was the Brazilian outsider – ranked 109th in the world coming into this event – who took the first frame at a canter, as he pocketed 10 blacks on his way to an impressive 140 break.
Figueiredo started the second frame in impressive fashion too, getting in behind the green to leave Trump in snooker trouble but after fouling on the pink at his first attempt, the Englishman nestled into the pack of reds to avoid any further penalty.
The first frame flew by – wrapped up in under 10 minutes – but the second frame was a cagey affair to begin, as both players exchanged safety shots before Trump – with his 11th shot of the frame – found the centre right pocket to break the stalemate.
It was a shot which put Trump on his way to a break of 48 before he missed a red to the bottom right corner after a poor set up off the black. Thankfully for the Bristolian, Figueiredo failed to capitalise, he too missed a red to the bottom right corner and Trump came back to the table with a break of 50 to capture the second frame and level proceedings.
It was an error from Figueiredo which handed Trump the initiative in frame three. After a routine break from Trump, the Brazilian made a mess of his first shot, seeing the white go into the bottom left corner via a pair of reds.
This gave the world number one a great opportunity to take his first lead of the match – and he needed no second invitation – notching his first century of the game with a break of exactly 100 to open up a 2-1 lead at the interval.
Trump was the first to falter in frame four, missing a long red towards the top left pocket to hand Figueiredo the chance to get back to the table and rack up his first proper points since the opening frame of the match.
He could consider himself somewhat unfortunate not to leave anything on after breaking into the pack off the brown but after failing to get the white safe with the resulting shot, he allowed Trump the opportunity to get back to the table. A second-consecutive century break – 121 to be exact – handed Trump a two frame cushion as he edged ever closer to victory.
With the next round of matches taking place later this evening, Trump will have wanted to get the match wrapped up as quickly as possible – and that he did – with breaks of 28 and 48 helping him see of the spirited South American and set up a clash with Maguire.
