The Gibraltar Open started on an incredible note, with a lot of fanfare, buzz and color accompanying it. You could imagine fans humming the names of their favorite stars.
Those tunes in fact begin to crescendo as their stars move ever closer to the finals. However, the coronavirus pandemic which seems to have brought a lot of economies to a free fall had its own fair share of effect on the event as well.
What would have been a rather noisy arena when Judd Trump and Kyren Wilson entertain fans of the sport to a predictably nerve-wracking final is most likely going to be unusually quiet. Due to the coronavirus crisis, the games from the last-16 have been ordered to be played behind closed doors compared to the initial 100 that were allowed at the start of the tournament.
As it is expected, world number one, Judd Trump is favored to take out his final opponent, Kyren Wilson. However, the latter poses a huge threat to Juddernaut and would fancy his chances of causing Trump a serious upset.
Should Trump win, he would be picking up the £150,000 up for topping the European Series mini ranking list ahead of his closest competitor, Neil Robertson who opted not to take part in the Gibraltar Open. Also, he would be the first-ever player to win six ranking titles in a single season.
Interestingly, not only Trump has more than silverware at stake here. Wilson is not only bidding for a fourth career ranking title but a place in the Tour Championship scheduled to kick off next week. A win for Wilson would catapult him above John Higgins in the one-year standings.
The Tour Championship features only the top eight players in the one-year standings and victory for Wilson will effectively secure a place for the English man and send seventh-placed John Higgins packing.
For the final, £50,000 is at stake in a winner-takes-all contest. A final comprising of only seven frames is usually a difficult one speak less of one that has the fantastic English duo of Trump and Wilson. Who do you consider in the best position to pick up the title and prize money?
Written by: Roland Arum
