GLASGOW // "Rocket" Ronnie O'Sullivan misfired badly as he crashed out of the Royal London Watches Grand Prix here as the teenager Judd Trump claimed a famous 5-4 victory. The world champion and world No 1 lost the first two frames but went on to lead 3-2 with a break of 104 - the highest of the match - but Trump responded well to the challenge and completely shut out O'Sullivan in the deciding frame.
O'Sullivan potted just a single red as Trump, 19, took frame nine 75-1 helped by small breaks of 26 and 23. He now faces the triple GP winner, John Higgins, who gave his home supporters plenty to cheer about following a 5-3 quarter-final victory over China's Ding Junhui. The other semi-final is between Alistair Carter and Ryan Day. Last season's world championship runner-up defeated the veteran Steve Davis 5-3 with top breaks of 90 in the second frame and 99 in the last of the match.
Day, who put out Mark Selby in the last-16 5-4, this time rolled in breaks of 129, 112, 85 and 74 as he completed a 5-1 win over Jamie Cope. Trump, who had a bye in the first round following the withdrawal of Graeme Dott, had never previously been beyond the last 32 of a ranking event and was obviously delighted with the biggest scalp to date. "It feels brilliant, we both struggled but I went out there to do a job and I did it. To beat Ronnie is massive for me."
After the interval O'Sullivan found his stride with a break of a 104. He followed that with a 44 in the next but Trump was given another chance in what proved to be a pivotal frame. On his second visit, he cleared to the blue, leaving O'Sullivan requiring a snooker. He got it when the Bristol potter hit the black trying to swerve round it to the pink. The Essex man sunk the pink but missed the black off its spot when he played it left-handed to gift the frame to his young opponent. @Email:sports@thenational.ae