Kyren Wilson crushes Judd Trump to win the 2024 Northern Ireland Open title

Collecting the £100,000 top prize for his efforts in Belfast this week, Wilson secures his first Home Nations Series event title. His one-sided victory at the Waterfront Hall on Sunday was in stark contrast to his previous two Home Nations final appearances when he was heavily defeated on both occasions 9-2 (2017 English Open) and 9-1 (2020 Welsh Open).

Featuring the world’s top two ranked players and considering their close career head-to-head record, all clues pointed to a keenly-contested title clash, but it was anything but, especially early on.

Defending and four-time champion Trump headed into the title match having dropped just four frames in five matches during his latest trip to the Northern Irish capital. His 6-0 semi-final whitewash victory over Elliot Slessor meant he had won 38 out of his last 40 matches in the tournament.

Having come through deciding frame finishes in his first two matches of the week, Wilson enjoyed comfortable last 16 and quarter-final victories before denying Pang Junxu, 6-4, in the last four.

Runaway world number one Trump began the final as the favourite, although Wilson had won their last meeting 10-8; and it was a big one, in the final of the big-money Xi’an Grand Prix in China earlier this season.

Surely no-one could have predicted how the first session would go.

A 58 break helped Wilson deposit the first frame, but the 32-year-old delivered an early blow to his opponent, winning the second frame by one point on the final black having required a snooker.

Efforts of 81 and 77 aided 'The Warrior' to a 4-0 mid-session interval lead. On resumption, the rout continued, as Wilson also took the next three frames - featuring breaks of 77 and 88, and a black ball verdict in the seventh - to open up a staggering 7-0 advantage.

The prospect of an unthinkable 9-0 whitewash was now a real possibility, but 29-time ranking event winner Trump finally ended the sequence and got on the board with a run of 83 in frame eight to finish the afternoon 7-1 down.

When the players returned a few hours later, Trump won two of the opening three frames (64 break, frame nine) to make the result look a bit more respectable - including a run of 143 in frame 11 which tied the tournament’s highest break along with Mark Williams - but Wilson got the job done in style before the final mid-session interval with a contribution of 119.

On the all-time list of the the most decorated ranking event champions, Wilson moves to within one title of both John Parrott and Peter Ebdon who are currently joint-13th. Prior to this week, Wilson had never been past the last 16 at the Waterfront venue.

This is another painful defeat that Wilson has inflicted on Trump. In 2020, he unleashed the ‘Crucible Curse’ on defending champion Trump at the quarter-finals stage, and he now leads their record in professional finals, 4-1, following previous triumphs in the Shanghai Masters, Championship League (Ranking Event) and aforementioned Xi’an Grand Prix.

Several times in the past we have seen maiden world champions struggle the following season with their new status, but Wilson appears to be loving that mantle and thriving of it with two titles since his greatest triumph at the Crucible last May.

This is the second time in Wilson’s career that he has deposited multiple ranking titles within a season; and it is still only October. He is the first player in this 2024/25 campaign to have won multiple ranking titles.

It may be a while until Wilson is in striking distance of Trump at the top of the world rankings, but these latest successes in China and Northern Ireland are certainly putting him on the right path.

Next up on the professional circuit are the ‘qualifying’ rounds for the 2024 Scottish Open which take place between October 28-30.

For full details on the 2024 Northern Ireland Open including the draw, results, prize money, schedule and how to watch, please visit our tournament information centre here.