World Snooker Championship 2011: stage set for Crucible classic as John Higgins edges out old foe Mark Williams

Trump, the spiky-haired 21 year-old whose flamboyant attacking play has illuminated this year’s tournament, received a rapturous ovation after coming from behind to defeat China’s Ding Junhui 17-15 in a match of the highest quality in Sheffield.

But Higgins’ more workmanlike 17-14 victory over Welshman Mark Williams was overshadowed by an incident during last night’s final session when a spectator hurled abuse at the Scot.

“How did you swallow that 300,000, John?” shouted the heckler. “We know what you did. You’re a disgrace to snooker.”

The man was promptly ordered out of the arena by referee Eirian Williams, though it was uncomfortable moment for Higgins, the three-time world champion, exactly a year to the day after he was filmed by undercover reporters in a Kiev hotel room agreeing to throw frames in exchange for £300,000.

The expose earned him a six-month ban for failing to report the approach and bringing the game into disrepute, though he escaped the more serious charge of match-fixing.

But Higgins has acquired a thick skin since those dark days and, typically, managed to block it out of his mind sufficiently to complete a break of 123 once the heckler had been removed.

In fact, it was Williams whose concentration seemed to be more affected. Either that or the tension of the occasion was too much for him as errors began to creep into his game, culminating in a horrendous missed black in what proved to be the final frame of the match.

Had he potted it, Higgins would have been left needing snookers to overhaul him, and Williams compounded his mistake when, given another chance to take the frame, he missed an easy red.

Higgins mopped up to reach his third world final in the last five years, but he acknowledged that this year’s final would be as tough as any he has experienced, describing Trump as “the new wonder boy the sport badly needs”.

“I don’t know where I’m going to put the white on the top cushion because he just pots and pots and pots,” added Higgins.

Trump, who was tied with Ding at 12-12 going into yesterday’s final session, was in scintillating from the start, potting an outrageous long red in the opening frame that heralded a break of 74 and then producing a clearance of 89 in the next frame.

But Ding was also at the top of his game, making a clearance of 138 in the third frame to equalled Mark King’s highest break of the tournament.

That was the first of three consecutive frames for the Chinese player, giving him a 15-14 lead, but Trump showed he has mental steel to add to his outstanding cueing skills by taking the next three frames to win the match. He celebrated with a boyish punch in the air.

His victory makes him the second youngest player, after Stephen Hendry, and having admitted earlier in the week that he was feeling 'a little bit invincible’, Trump said his confidence and self-belief was now even greater.

“Winning that game makes me feel even more invincible than I was before,” he said. “I think Ding played at about 90 to 95 per cent of what he is capable of, and to overcome him is a very good feeling.”

Having clinched his first ranking title at the China Open earlier this month, Trump has now won 11 matches in a row in the final two tournaments of the season.

“After I went out and won in China, I came here with a different attitude,” he said. “I decided I was not just coming to enjoy it but to win it, and I still believe that.”