Tight-lipped Judd Trump rings equipment change ahead of whitewash win at the Riyadh Season Championship

After taking two low-scoring opening frames, Trump finished the contest in style with breaks of 100 and 102 in back-to-back frames to complete a whitewash over the out-of-sorts Welshman and move into Friday's semi-finals in Saudi Arabia.

The result was payback for Trump who lost 4-3 to Williams at this same stage of the competition last year.

At last week's Champion of Champions, Englishman Trump raised doubts he was having about the new cue he had been using over the past couple months, stating that he would ditch the changed equipment if he didn't win a title in either Leicester or Riyadh within the subsequent fortnight.

Trump went on to reach the final at the Mattioli Arena but lost to home hero Mark Selby, 10-5. Post-match, the runner-up seemed to give a verdict on his new set-up by stating "I couldn't win with that cue" and suggesting that the experiment with it was over.

Having initially made the decision to change in order to obtain more power and find consistent ball-striking across different conditions, it looked like Trump was back to using his old cue for his latest match with Williams, although he refused to confirm this after progressing in the Saudi capital city.

Speaking with Matt Smith and Stephen Hendry in the arena after booking his last four place, 'The Ace in the Pack' was questioned about the cue and replied: "It's different from last week. It's a change. There might be a few more changes before the end of the season.

"It took me a little bit to get warmed up. I only played with this cue for one hour since I went home, so I managed to practice a little bit today, so I was a little bit rusty, but towards the end I got my confidence”.

In another interview, this time with the World Snooker Tour, Trump was asked whether this was his old cue, but responded by saying that it was a different cue from last week at the Champion of Champions.

However, world number two Kyren Wilson - who was on commentary for the match - said at the start of frame four that fellow professional Oliver Lines had confirmed to him that it was Trump's old cue.

Trump hasn’t won a title since claiming his second UK Championship crown at the beginning of last December.

Defending champion and world champion both advance in Riyadh

Elsewhere in Riyadh on Thursday the other three quarter-final encounters were decided at the Global Theater in Boulevard City.

The day began with an impressive performance from Neil Robertson who clean swept Wilson, 4-0.

The Australian - making his debut in this tournament having not qualified for the first two editions held in 2024 - registered runs of 100, 133, 88 and 76 as he restricted his opponent to just 26 points throughout.

Robertson is on track for a double in the Kingdom after winning the Saudi Arabia Masters ranking event in August.

Reigning champion Mark Allen will be Robertson's opposite number in the last four after the title holder from Northern Ireland defeated John Higgins (82 break), 4-2, in a largely disjointed affair.

The final player to secure a slot in the semis was reigning world champion Zhao Xintong after he put on a brilliant display to dismiss Shaun Murphy, 4-2.

Current Masters and British Open champion Murphy won both his opening matches on Wednesday without dropping a frame - including a whitewash of Ronnie O’Sullivan - and he continued his streak as a run of 79 helped him to the first frame.

A 62 aided Zhao in levelling up, and after Murphy had missed on 57 in frame three, the Crucible king counter-attacked with a 69 clearance to go in front, 2-1.

Murphy produced a 101 in frame four to restore parity, but Chinese cueist Zhao took the next two frames with contributions of 73 and 88 to make the semi-finals of an event for the third week running after efforts at the International Championship and Champion of Champions.

Zhao - who is still seeking his first final appearance of the season - will face Trump, next; the two met in Leicester last week with the latter coming away with a 6-2 win.

Visit our tournament information centre here for details on the 2025 Riyadh Season Snooker Championship including the draw, results, schedule and how to watch.