Judd Trump should look back at his 2019/2020 fondly.
Since winning the 2018 Northern Ireland Open, Trump’s game has gone from strength to strength. He won the 2019 Players Championship and completed the Triple Crown by winning the Masters and his first World Championship that season. As a first-time World Champion, Judd wanted to learn from how Mark Selby and Stuart Bingham coped when they won theirs in 2014 and 2015 respectively for the 2019/2020 season.
As a defending champion, Trump proved to everyone what a talented ambassador of snooker he is. He beat six different finalists to win six ranking titles in a single season. This breaks the record of five set by Stephen Hendry, Ding Junhui and Ronnie O’Sullivan. Trump also successfully defending his Northern Ireland Open title by defeating O’Sullivan 9-7 in the final. He regained his position as No. 1 in the world. Trump became the second player to score 100 centuries in a single season by hitting 102 in the 2019/20 season.
At the end of the season, he won the Fans’ Player of the Year, Snooker Journalists’ Player of the Year and the Player of the Year at the WST Awards. Such an incredible season.
But that season is behind us and Trump is not the current World Champion anymore. He will be defending so many titles next season, except the Chinese events as China cancelled international sporting events until 2021. Considering everyone expects Judd Trump to dominate the game like Stephen Hendry did, there will be some pressure on the Juddernaut.
What will Trump need to do to improve on the previous season? Who will Trump need to watch out for in the new season? How can Trump attempt to assert his dominance once again?
Triple Crown Blues
If there is one thing that stained Trump’s brilliant season, it was his performances in Triple Crown events. They were poor by his standards.
Trump fell foul in one of the shock results of the season in the UK Championship. He only reached the third round and lost 6-3 to No. 98 seed Nigel Bond. Trump’s defence of his Masters crown was also short-lived as he was beaten by Shaun Murphy 6-3 in the opening round.
We weren’t treated to ‘naughty snooker’ from The Ace in the Pack in the World Snooker Championship. Instead, we saw rather tough, scrappy and determined snooker. It was enough to punish Tom Ford in his opening match and to weather the storm against No. 16 seed Yan Bingtao. But he peaked too late. Kyren Wilson was the deserving winner in their quarter-final tie by 13 frames to 9.
The Triple Crown refers to winning the three most prestigious tournaments in snooker. If Trump wants to be among the snooker greats, he needs to win more of those. He has a decent record at the Masters and the World Championship in recent years. But he only reached the last eight in the UK Championship twice in the last ten seasons. At 31 year-old, he does have time on his side. Selby proved his greatness by winning three World titles within four seasons. Trump needs to use this season to start getting to that sort of standard.
Resurgent Rivals
Ronnie O’Sullivan winning the 2020 World Snooker Championship should send alarm bells ringing in Judd’s direction. O’Sullivan didn’t have a good season but that victory was a statement that he wasn’t simply going to stand aside.
O’Sullivan is arguably the best player to pick up a cue and both he and Judd had many great finals together. You can find my countdown on those finals by clicking here. It now seems like there may be many more on the horizon. Indeed, O’Sullivan said that he will return to a reduced schedule next season. But that doesn’t stop him being a threat. Far from it.
The other threatening competitor is the World Championship finalist Kyren Wilson. Kyren is Judd’s closest rival because of their age. It is argued that they hold the baton for future snooker. The hatchet between the two has been buried after their tiny spat a couple of years ago. After Kyren’s victory over Judd in the recent World Championship quarter-finals, Kyren leads the H2H record by 8-5.
Of course, there are plenty of other players who can silence. Selby, Robertson, Murphy, John Higgins, Mark Allen, just to name a few!
Rediscovering His Form
It’s been documented that Trump’s form during the pandemic wasn’t the same compared to his relentless form pre-lockdown.
Goodness knows why his form dipped. One could argue it’s because the conditions are warmer but that’s the same for everyone. Is it because practicing at the club is somehow better than practicing at home?
But we have a packed calendar! If you want to have a look, please click here. There are plenty of ranking events coming up, including the newly-upgraded Championship League. This includes his defence of the Northern Ireland Open and the German Masters. The campaign starts with the first leg of the Championship League on 13th September. It’s not long for Trump to return to his title-winning form.
The season coming up is unlikely to be as good if not better than the previous season. Even if Judd won just two ranking events then, that will be deemed not good enough. Critics have high expectations of him and who can blame them?
Looking forward to the new season already!
