Judd Trump will head to subsequent week’s Northern Eire Open on the Waterfront Corridor in Belfast as its defending champion.
The Englishman received the title for a report fourth time in 2023, elevating aloft the Alex Higgins Trophy after finishing a 9-3 overcome Chris Wakelin within the remaining.
It was the top of October, and Trump had simply accomplished a uncommon hat-trick of consecutive rating occasion victories – a feat solely 4 gamers had achieved beforehand.
The Northern Eire Open glory adopted earlier wins that month within the English Open and the Wuhan Open.
Quick ahead about 12 months, and the 35 year-old has largely sustained that extremely excessive stage of efficiency on the World Snooker Tour.
The truth is, Trump has represented an nearly fixed presence on the enterprise finish of competitions since then.
Throughout 2024, the Bristol potter has added 4 extra items of silverware to his ever-growing assortment.
The German Masters and World Open crowns had been received within the second half of final season, and two further titles have been captured on this marketing campaign already.
Trump received the distinguished Shanghai Masters invitational in China earlier than rising triumphantly on the inaugural Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters, the place he pocketed a record-equalling prize of £500,000.
That jackpot helped him consolidate his return to the primary place on this planet rankings for the primary time since 2021.
However such has been his consistency that even with out that half-million pound cheque from Riyadh, Trump would nonetheless boast the standing of prime canine within the sport on the official two-year standings.
Within the 2024 calendar 12 months, he has reached the quarter-finals or higher of each single occasion he has participated in.
That equates to 4 titles, two additional appearances in finals, two semi-finals, and 6 quarter-finals – an unimaginable run of type in anyone’s e-book.
That’s to not overlook his wonderful achievement of reaching 1,000 profession century breaks on the latest British Open, changing into solely the third participant in historical past to take action.
But is Judd Trump receiving sufficient plaudits for his latest achievements on the very prime of the sport?
A preferred argument towards Trump’s report is that he doesn’t carry out strongly sufficient on the greatest tournaments, and by greatest, his naysayers usually imply the Triple Crown tournaments.
There’s some weight to that, as a result of a profession return of 4 Triple Crown titles – together with only one World Championship crown – might be beneath par for what his super expertise deserves.
There is no such thing as a getting away from the truth that his quarter-final exit on the Crucible Theatre to Jak Jones in April was disappointing, to place it politely.
However Trump himself admits that he places amount over high quality on the subject of the silverware he can attain throughout his profession.
And like he has stated previously, his capacity to win newly established tournaments – ones that perhaps haven’t had the possibility but to garner status however will sooner or later – has been stellar.
That was highlighted once more when he pipped Mark Williams to glory in Saudi Arabia final month, the nation’s first-ever rating occasion.
Judd Trump
October 2023 – October 2024
Champion: x7
(2023 English Open; 2023 Wuhan Open; 2023 Northern Eire Open; 2024 German Masters; 2024 World Open; 2024 Shanghai Masters; 2024 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters)
Runner-up: x3
(2023 Champion of Champions; 2024 World Grand Prix; 2024 Xi’an Grand Prix)
Semi-Finals: x3
(2023 UK Championship; 2024 World Masters of Snooker; 2024 Wuhan Open)
Quarter-Finals: x6
(2024 Masters; 2024 Gamers Championship; 2024 Tour Championship; 2024 World Championship; 2024 English Open; 2024 British Open)
L32: x1
(2023 Worldwide Championship)
L64: x1
(2023 Scottish Open)
There are individuals who argue that Judd Trump must win one other World Championship and extra Triple Crown occasions to be thought of a legend of the game, an all-time nice.
The truth is, there are total Reddit threads and on-line articles devoted to this concept that’s, properly, absolute nonsense.
Trump is already a legend of the game, and he has many of the stats to again that up, with time nonetheless on his aspect to get it proper extra typically within the so-called majors as properly.
The Class of 1992 – rightly – receives fixed reward for his or her achievements within the sport, but it surely’s price noting that we’re additionally within the means of watching one other profession that can go down in historical past as one of many sport’s most interesting.
Not solely within the final 12 months however usually since round his 2018 triumph on the Northern Eire Open, Trump has been a ruthless profitable machine – taking his rating occasion tally from eight to 29 in that six-year interval.
That very same match is arising subsequent week on the 2024/25 schedule, and it wouldn’t be a shock to see the title Judd Trump etched onto the trophy but once more.
A participant born to entertain, we must always get pleasure from his excellent play and marvel at his success whereas we are able to.
Featured picture credit score: WST