Trump avenges shock Crucible defeat with win over Jones at Xi'an Grand Prix

Judd Trump remains on course for back-to-back title wins in China after coasting past Jak Jones 5-1 on Thursday morning to reach the Xi’an Grand Prix quarter-finals.

The Shanghai Masters champion lost 13-9 to world finalist Jones in the Crucible quarter-finals in April, but gained a measure of revenge for that shock defeat on Thursday, with a couple of 50-plus breaks helping him secure a last-eight meeting with David Gilbert or Mark Selby on Friday.

Jones produced a wonderful 136 break to win the third frame, but he could not maintain a consistent level of scoring as he exited the second ranking event of the season a day after edging Jack Lisowski 5-4 in the last 32.

Trump defeated Shaun Murphy 11-5 to claim the invitational Shanghai Masters title last month and has dropped only four frames in his run to the last eight in Xi’an, including a 5-2 qualifying win over Antoni Kowalski in Leicester last month.

Trump needs one more ranking title victory to move above fellow Englishman Steve Davis as the fourth-most prolific winner in the history of the sport.

The 2019 world champion shares fourth spot with six-time world champion Davis on the all-time list with both men on 28 tournament wins, behind Ronnie O’Sullivan (41), Stephen Hendry (36) and John Higgins (31).

Trump could regain top spot in the rankings by claiming the £177,000 first prize after world No. 1 Mark Allen lost 5-3 to Barry Hawkins while there was a 5-4 win for Matthew Selt over Gong Chenzhi.

Hawkins will face Dominic Dale or Daniel Wells in the quarter-finals on Friday while former Indian Open champion Selt will meet the winner of Ronnie O’Sullivan or Hossein Vafaei, who meet at 12:30pm in the last 16 on Thursday afternoon.

Meanwhile, three-time world champion Mark Williams lost the final three frames in a 5-4 defeat to world No. 58 Xu Si.

The Welshman moved 4-2 ahead with breaks of 96, 70 and 86, but watched as Xu dominated the closing stages, with breaks of 77 and 109 helping him secure a meeting with world champion Kyren Wilson or Jimmy Robertson in the last eight.