Judd Trump shoved aside Mei Xi Wen to secure a spot in the third round of the UK Championship, going past 50 in five different frames.

Juddernaut completed a whitewash 6-0 finish over Amine Amiri in the first round of the event but managed to get past the 50 mark only once, hitting a century in the second frame with a break of 125.

However, he seems to have found his magic touch ever since. Against Mei Xi Wen,
Trump was, in fact, more ruthless in his approach as he took on Wen for the second time in New York. Wen seems to be in the business of ruining things for the big guns, and this he did when he threw veteran Ken Doherty to the dogs in the first round of the event.

The world number 1 would however, not fall into the booby traps set by the Chinese. Danny, the Boy, raced to a 4-0 lead with breaks of 68, 86, and a century break of 105. Trump was willing and ready to dispatch the Chinese. For Trump, there was no margin for error. With his recent form, the UK Championship and was in no mood to let it slide, at least not to an underdog.

Mei Xi Wen, however, showed beyond a reasonable doubt that he had with sheer hard work earned his spot in this round of the tournament. The Chinese hit back to stop what would have been a complete whitewash and did so emphatically. Wen recorded a break of 127 in the fifth frame to make it 4-1.

Although it stopped Trump from equalling Ronnie O’Sullivan’s record of 12 frame victories on the bounce, he would walk away with a round win. He has now joined the defending champion in the third round, setting up a matchup with either of Nigel Bond or Louis Heathcote.

Simultaneously, Graeme Dott saw off Yuan Sijun after completing a whitewash win. The former failed to hit any century during the encounter, but like Trump did go past the 50-mark in five different frames, rounding up his demolition of Sijun with a break of 99.

Roland Arum