Ahhhhhhhh, there have been a number of questions arisen this year. Why is the Snooker Shoot-Out a ranking event? How did Ronnie O’Sullivan win the Masters on his C-game? Why is it so funny to find out that after suspending Alfie Burden for betting on snooker matches, World Snooker revealed in short, that he is really shit at betting? But the BIG one that comes up every year is: Is this Judd Trump’s year?
Now, I’ll be honest – I am a Judd Trump supporter (I notice that saying “I am a Trump supporter” nowadays can result in a completely different reaction). His performances during the 2011 World Championship, particularly his semi-final performance against Ding Junhui where he stunningly beat the Chinaman 17-15 was the main reason why I got interested into snooker in the first place. So following his career, there are periods of brilliance in sparks and in a few occasions, episodes of frustrations where you wonder where that unexpected loss came from, no matter how many YouTube videos you watched.
Since his brand of ‘naughty snooker’ after winning the China Open and finishing runners-up in the World Championship, Trump was heralded as a future World Champion and the figurehead of young snooker players. This was at the same time when the likes of Mark Williams, Stephen Hendry, Graeme Dott and even at the time Ronnie O’Sullivan were declining in form and snooker needed a new face, and Trump delivers this in spades, even when he broke records for being the youngest player to score a 147 (age 10) and reaching the World Under-21 Championship semi-finals at the age of 14.
In the next seasons, Judd just kept going up and up. In the seasons 2011/2012 and 2012/2013, Judd won four titles – two non-ranking events and two of them being the International Championship and of course his first Triple Crown trophy the UK Championship, beating another young player in Mark Allen 10-8. Again, both players heralded as the players spearheading a new generation of snooker. His performances even got him to world No. 1, albeit for five weeks. This was the brilliance I was talking about!
Then there was a downward spiral. Okay, that was harsh, but it was regarded as more than an anti-climax. Despite being named bookies favourite for the 2012 World Championship, he lost in the second round against Ali Carter, losing a 12-9 lead. Next season he didn’t win a ranking event in 2013/2014 and was dwarfed by Ding winning five titles in a single season, perhaps his partying and complacency got the better of him. He said he stood still while everyone else improved and that showed when the likes of Kyren Wilson, Zhang Anda, Anthony McGill and Matthew Selt were getting the better of him, even being whitewashed by world No. 120 Michael Wild 6-0 in 2015.
But now I’m blabbering on. Since then, he has proved more and more consistent, his safety game and his bottle has significantly improved and that eventually converted into more trophies, praise and more dangerously, more hype (because the media are never overhyped over young English talent in any sport. Look at Andy Carroll).
Trump finally gets the praise he deserves in trophies, but now brings up the inevitable question – can he be World Champion this year? He has now put his party days behind him, seems settled with his girlfriend and has being getting better and better since winning his third ranking title in the 2014 Australia Goldfields Open. Stephen Hendry remarked in an interview after the match that the floodgates could open for him, and could see him either defending his China Open crown or winning the World Championship. Even Stephen Hendry said Trump not winning a WC in his career would just be a travesty as Jimmy White never winning one. Even Ronnie O’Sullivan even warned Judd that he believes he must win the World Championship within three years before upcoming Chinese players such as Zhao Xintong and Yan Bingtao beat him to it. He says the longer Judd fails to win this title, the more pressure will mount on him and only time will tell if Trump could handle this sort of pressure.
This season has been Judd’s most consistent, reaching five finals and winning two. He is second in the one-year ranking list, only beaten by Selby who won the two biggest ranking prizes: the International Championship and the UK Championship. In a circuit of such talent, reaching five finals is an achievement in itself, but you kind of feel that despite his achievements and victories he needs to win the World Championships or the Masters to announce the arrival of a new generation. It does seem as if the main commentators think he is one of the top three men to beat based on form, but you can name ten contenders for this year’s title – it really is that open. Mark Selby is currently the most feared man in this format, winning his second title last year in only his B-game and his ‘granite’ safety is usually immaculate. One advantage for Trump as I write this, being ranked second means he avoids Selby in his half of the draw, and in his quarter, he could meet Anthony McGill and then either Ali Carter or Barry Hawkins.
I mentioned this before, but it is important to point this out again. What Trump needs to do is to not come from behind to win the final so often. This happened in this year’s Welsh Open, against Stuart Bingham in the Welsh Open final (he was 4-0 behind at one point), against O’Sullivan in the European Masters (8-6 down) as well as against him in the 2014 UK Championship (9-4 down), the 2014 Champion of Champions (6-3 down), the 2015 World Grand Prix (4-1 down) and lastly 6-3 down against Kyren Wilson in the 2015 Shanghai Masters against Kyren Wilson. He has won seven out of fifteen finals and needs to improve on that tally.
Do I think he can win it this year? Yes. At current form, he is the best player. His World Championship record is very decent. He has never lost the first round as a seeded player and has reached at least the quarters four times in the past six years. He was only beaten by those who had to play well to beat him, such as Neil Robertson, Stuart Bingham who went on to win the competition and then unseeded Ding Junhui. It would take a lot to beat him. If not, he will win one within three years. I’ll leave you with a poser: will Ding Junhui beat him to it?
