Trump left in fear of no-one after seeing off threat from O’Sullivan

Trump, the game’s rising star and reigning UK champion, raced into a 4-0 lead at the mid-session interval in the best-of-11 encounter.

Although O’Sullivan looked better after the resumption – hitting a tournament-best break of 141 – Trump always had plenty in reserve and picked up the remaining frames required for a 6-2 victory.

His century break aside, four-time champion O’Sullivan failed to live up to the promise of his first-round win over reigning champion Ding Junhui, but the inexorable rise of Trump continues, and he will play Neil Robertson or Mark Williams in the final four.

Trump confidently stated after the match that he is now the man for the rest to beat.

“I’ve come into it full of confidence and thinking I can win it, and the players are more under pressure playing me now than I am playing them, and they all really want to beat me now,” he said.

“I’ve controlled all my games really since maybe the first round in (last month’s) UK Championship. Apart from that, I’ve got in front and I haven’t really had to come back against anyone yet.”

To beat O’Sullivan Trump also had to overcome a partisan London crowd, but the 22-year-old insisted he was never fazed by their boisterous support of his opponent.

“It was a brilliant atmosphere out there,” he said.

“Even though Ronnie had a lot of the support, I just go out there and play my game and hopefully they enjoy my game as much as him and come back and watch.

“Ronnie is from London, he’s going to have the majority of the support, he’s done what few in the game have done, so I look up to him, and I’ve just got enjoy it out there. If you can’t enjoy that there’s no point playing.”

O’Sullivan, meanwhile, reflected that he was beaten by the better man on the day.

“He scored heavily, potted some fantastic balls and under pressure made some good clearances, so all credit has to go to him,” O’Sullivan told a press conference.

“He’s performed better than me on the day and deserved his victory. When someone’s scoring as well as he is and full of confidence, it’s hard to stop them.”

World champion John Higgins reached the semi-finals after a 6-3 win over Graeme Dott last night.

Today, the last two quarter-finals see Robertson plays Williams, while Mark Selby tackles Shaun Murphy – the winner will face Higgins in the last four tomorrow evening.