Ronnie O’Sullivan v Judd Trump LIVE: Snooker updates as stars clash in Saudi semi-final

Ronnie O’Sullivan thrashed John Higgins to reach the semi-finals of the inaugural Riyadh Season World Masters of Snooker.

The Rocket made three century breaks in the opening three frames before a break of 82 handed him a 4-0 victory against the Scot. Higgins failed to pot a red in the game - his only four points coming from a foul.

O’Sullivan now meets Judd Trump in the semi-finals. Trump rallied from 2-0 down to beat Shaun Murphy 4-3 and reach the last four.

Viewers in the UK can watch the match and the entire World Masters event on Eurosport. Subscribers can also stream the match online via the Discovery+ app.

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Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Judd Trump is the second semi-final scheduled to take place second on Wednesday 6 March in Riyadh. The match will take place following the conclusion of Luca Brecel vs Mark Allen and is expected to get underway at around 4pm GMT.

The winners of both semi-finals will meet in the final on the same night which is scheduled to take place at 7pm GMT.

In the other semi-final of the day, Luca Brecel has just clinched a lenghty frame to take a 2-0 lead over Mark Allen. The Belgian is halfway to a spot in the final needing to win two more frames to win the match.

Ronnie O’Sullivan takes on Judd Trump following the conclusion of this one.

Saudi Arabia will stage its first ranking snooker event later this year, with the inaugural Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters boasting a prize fund of more than £2m.

That puts the tournament behind only the World Championship in terms of prize money, with the World Snooker Tour branding it the “fourth major” alongside the traditional triple crown of World Championship, UK Championship and Masters.

A 10-year deal has been agreed for the event, which will take place from 31 August to 7 September in Riyadh and is open to the entire tour, plus six local wild cards.

Ahead of Ronnie O'Sullivan v Judd Trump later on, we have Luca Brecel taking on Mark Allen.

And the Belgian Bullet leads early on in the best-of-seven frames match.

The 2023 world champion has credited a weight loss for his return to form, stating: “I just needed to work a bit on my fitness and stuff like that. I lost a bit of weight and feel much better.

“I think that was the kind of change I needed to play well again. I feel like now, the sky is the limit.”

The announcement at the end of January that Saudi Arabia would be entering the snooker fray as the latest phase of its sportswashing project didn’t come as any great surprise and the fact that the sport is welcoming Saudi investment with open arms is even less shocking.

With its fingers in an almost exponentially increasing number of sporting pies – from F1 races to tennis tournaments, boxing super-cards to lucrative horse races, purchases of Premier League clubs and revolutionary golf tours, and with global tournaments such as football World Cups and Asian Games on the horizon – the country shows no sign of slowing down in its concerted attempt to distract from alleged human rights abuses.

Snooker is simply the latest (fairly small) piece of the jigsaw; a full ranking event in the Gulf state has been mooted for a couple of years, with an official announcement made last month for a tournament featuring all 128 professional players to take place next season. For a niche sport fighting for both coverage in a congested media landscape and desperately needed investment from external partners, a Saudi link-up is almost inevitable – moral quandaries be damned.

Welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of Ronnie O’Sullivan v Judd Trump from Saudi Arabia this afternoon.

The World Masters of Snooker has reached the semi-final stage in Riyadh, with the two sporting icons squaring off in a best-of-seven match.

Stick with us for all the updates from the clash.