Defending Masters champion Judd Trump held his nerve to summon a match-winning break of 65 and beat Kyren Wilson 6-5 in a fluctuating first round clash at Alexandra Palace.
Trump stormed back from a 3-0 deficit to reel off five frames in a row and put himself on the brink of victory before a costly miss in the penultimate frame handed his opponent the initiative.
Wilson looked set to wrap up victory himself when he got in first in the decider but he left a red dangling over the middle pocket on a break of 51 and two-time winner Trump coolly stepped up to book his place in the last eight.
Trump told Eurosport: “It was a bit of a scrappy game and it was nip and tuck the whole way through.
“I felt like I threw it away at 5-4. Kyren made an amazing break to go 5-5 and it looked like he would get over the line but he just left that little gap and I took it quite well.”
Breaks of 65 and 76, as well as a superb clearance of 34 to the pink after Trump’s 58 in frame three, helped Wilson race into a 3-0 lead.
Contributions of 42 and 52 saw Trump finally get on the scoreboard before the mid-session interval and the former world champion then got back on level terms with breaks of 101 and 83.
Trump won the seventh frame to edge in front for the first time and also took the next, a scrappy affair which lasted 40 minutes, to lead 5-3, only for Wilson to edge a tense ninth frame to keep the match alive.
Wilson drew level after a brave long red sparked a frame-winning clearance of 58, but he could not repeat the feat when it mattered enabling Trump to sink the final black to get over the line.
