Trump And Robertson Enjoy Whitewashes

Judd Trump and Neil Robertson both sailed into the last 16 of the Kreativ Dental German Masters with 5-0 victories on Wednesday night at the Tempodrom in Berlin.

Pic: Da Zhuang

Trump won the first three frames against Michael Holt with a top break of 50, then stepped up a gear with back to back centuries, 104 and 102, to win in style.

“I started off slowly but I’m pleased by the way I finished the match,” said Trump, who now meets Martin Gould. “I haven’t played many tournaments lately so I struggled to start with, but then I got going. At the start today I wasn’t sure how I would play, but tomorrow I’ll have more confidence I think I’ll improve as the tournament goes on.

“This is one of the top two or three tournaments of the season for me and the fans are probably the best we play in front of. They are excited and they show their emotions.”

World number two Robertson top scored with 84 in a comfortable win over Fergal O’Brien.

“Fergal’s a good all round player and there will always be a few tactical exchanges against him, so I’m pleased with the way I played,” said Australia’s Robertson, who was beaten 10-2 by Shaun Murphy in the Masters final last month.

“I was playing in the Chinese pool tournament so I haven’t prepared that well for this event, although I was playing a lot of competitive matches.

“I haven’t done well in this tournament apart from getting to the semi-finals in 2013. It’s such a great arena so I’d love to be here towards the end and feel a part of that.

“The Masters has been and gone – the final was just a one-off match which might happen to me once in my career and unfortunately for me it came in a big final. But it’s in the past and there are plenty more big events between now and the World Championship.”

Stephen Maguire survived a fight-back from David Gilbert to win 5-3. Breaks of 77 and 53 helped Maguire build a 4-0 lead before Gilbert recovered to 4-3. But Maguire finished strongly with an 80 in frame eight.

World number five Barry Hawkins suffered a 5-3 defeat against Mark King, whose top break was 106.

China’s Xiao Guodong came from 4-3 down to beat Liam Highfield 5-4. Highfield led 47-0 in frame eight and 50-0 in frame nine but couldn’t finish the job.