Welsh Open: Judd Trump and Joe Perry reach final

Judd Trump and Joe Perry have never met in a final before

Judd Trump and Joe Perry will meet in an all-English Welsh Open final at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport.

The two semi-finals went to a deciding frame with Trump, 32, coming back from 3-1 and 5-3 down to beat Hossein Vafaei 6-5 in an entertaining encounter.

Perry, 47, held off a spirited comeback from Jack Lisowski to win 6-5 and reach his first final since 2018.

This will be the first major ranking final of the season for the former world champion Trump.

"It's been a long time since I was in a ranking final and the way I managed to get through that, I'm so pleased," said Trump.

Vafaei, 27, opened with a break of 94 and was very much in control at the start of the match leading 3-1.

World number three Trump battled back to draw level on 3-3 but the recent Snooker Shoot Out champion Vafaei pulled ahead to 5-3.

World number 21 Vafaei, had chances in the next frame to seal the win, but it was the 2017 runner-up Trump who won the next two frames, including a superb 121 break in the 10th to pull level and force the decider.

"I thought he [Vafaei] was the better player and I had to dig in and absolutely grind it out," Trump added.

Perry powers through despite illness

Former Masters finalist Perry said it was the "worst" he'd ever played as he was suffering from a bad headache during his semi-final victory.

Nevertheless, Perry dominated the start of the match, winning the first three frames and almost winning the fourth before he missed an easy red and Lisowski, 30, stole in to pull a one back.

Lisowski, ranked 17 in the world, won the next frame but both players were making mistakes and Perry was able to stretch his lead to 5-3.

World number 42 Perry had a chance to seal the win in the ninth frame but missed a black off the spot and Lisowski capitalised, winning that frame and the next with a 123 break to take the match to a decider.

In a tense final frame Perry missed the pink in the middle left pocket but did enough when he returned to the table to seal the win.

"It was the worst I've ever felt in a game of snooker," said Perry.

"I had a bad headache and I actually went to put my fingers down my throat when I went 4-2 up because I knew I had to do something as I couldn't see the edges of the balls and anything from six-foot away was a complete guess.

"It just came on all of sudden about five minutes before I was about to go on, I just felt awful.

"It's a good job I got the start I did. If I play like I've done all week minus that game then I've got a chance."

Day six semi-final results

Judd Trump 6-5 Hossein Vafaei

Jack Lisowski 5-6 Joe Perry

Day seven - final (times GMT)

13:00 & 19:00: Judd Trump v Joe Perry