Ronnie O'Sullivan and Judd Trump to clash at Players Championship as Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy miss out

Ronnie O'Sullivan and Judd Trump will renew their intense 14-year rivalry in the first round of the Players Championship in Wolverhampton (February 7-13) with the starting line-up confirmed following the conclusion of the German Masters in Berlin. The top 16 players on the one-year list qualify automatically for the elite event at Aldersley Leisure Village in the chase for the £125,000 top prize. Ad/> World Grand Prix winner and world No.

2 O'Sullivan is seeded third for the tournament with world number three Trump at 14th. German MastersZhao leads Yan 8-0 after extraordinary first session in German Masters final2 HOURS AGO The pair first met in the last 32 of the 2008 Welsh Open with six-times world champion and double Players champion O'Sullivan winning 5-3 in Newport. Robertson set to miss Championship League group games after positive Covid-19 test 'Best venue in the world' – Zhao hails Berlin Tempodrom as snooker's greatest arena Trump is 15-13 clear on the career head-to-heads having won their past three meetings – including two 9-7 final wins in the 2019 and 2020 Northern Ireland Open finals respectively – with O'Sullivan victorious in an epic 10-9 semi-final victory at the 2019 Tour Championship.

Trump lifted the prestigious Champions of Champions event in November, but his best form in ranking tournaments has been three quarter-final appearances so far this season. The bottom half of the draw is a minefield with the winner of the O'Sullivan v Trump match facing Masters champion Neil Robertson or world No. 5 Kyren Wilson in the quarter-finals.

World No. 4 Robertson and Wilson clash in a repeat of their recent Champion of Champions encounter that the 2020 world finalist Wilson won 6-4. Defending champion John