Judd Trump

On 1 March 2020, Trump claimed a record-equalling fifth ranking title of the season when he defeated Yan Bingtao 10–4 in the final of the Players Championship. With this victory, he became the fifth player to win five ranking events in a single season, after Stephen Hendry, Ding Junhui, Mark Selby and Ronnie O'Sullivan.

In the 2019–20 snooker season so far, Trump has won six ranking tournaments, setting a new record for the most ranking titles in a single season. A prolific break-builder, he has compiled more than 700 century breaks in professional competition, making him the youngest player to achieve this feat and only the fifth player ever to reach the 700-century mark.

Two more semi-final appearances in March 2019, at the Players Championship and the Tour Championship, were followed by the biggest success of Trump's career so far, when he won the 2019 World Championship. He defeated Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 10–9 in the first round, having trailed 3–6 after the first session. In the second round against Ding Junhui, he led 5–1 and trailed 7–9, then won six consecutive frames to clinch a 13–9 victory. A comfortable 13–6 quarter-final win over Stephen Maguire took him to the semi-finals, where he beat Gary Wilson 17–11 to secure his second appearance in a world final.

Trump's first appearance as reigning world champion was at the International Championship in August 2019. He won the tournament by defeating Shaun Murphy 10–3 in the final, regaining the number one position in the snooker world rankings ahead of Ronnie O'Sullivan. He also won the World Open early in the season, defeating Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 10–5 in the final.

At the 2018 World Championship, Trump came close to suffering a first round defeat by Crucible debutant Chris Wakelin who took the match to a deciding frame. After beating Ricky Walden 13–9 in the second round, he was narrowly defeated in the quarter-finals by John Higgins in another final frame decider, the first time they had met in a World Championship match since the 2011 final.

Trump began the 2018–19 season fifth in the world rankings. His defence of the European Masters ended with a surprise 2–4 defeat against Tian Pengfei in the second round. He won his first ranking title of the season at the Northern Ireland Open, beating Ronnie O'Sullivan 9–7 in the final. At the UK Championship, he suffered a 4–6 fourth round loss to Joe Perry. He then reached the semi-final of the Scottish Open, but was defeated 3–6 by Shaun Murphy. In January, Trump won his first Masters title, beating Kyren Wilson, Mark Selby and Neil Robertson en route to the final, where his opponent was Ronnie O'Sullivan. Trump dominated the match, taking a 7–1 lead, and eventually won it 10–4. A month later, he won his second ranking event of the season, the World Grand Prix, beating Ali Carter 10–6 in the final.

By the end of the 2017–18 snooker season, Trump had won a total of eight ranking titles, although many believed that he had underachieved, given his talent. During the 2018–19 snooker season, his form and focus notably improved. In addition to ranking titles at the Northern Ireland Open and the World Grand Prix, he won his first Masters, defeating Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–4 in the final, and completed his Triple Crown (one of 11 players to do so) by winning his first World Snooker Championship, defeating Higgins 18–9 in what some commentators described as the highest-quality world final ever played. He also became the first player to win over £1 million in prize money in a single season.

Trump went into the 2017 World Championship declaring: "I honestly believe I can play to a standard which is very rare nowadays," and that he was "the best" in the world. He won the first four frames in his opening match, before Rory McLeod responded to lead 5–4. Trump appeared to be struggling with a shoulder injury and eventually lost the match 8–10 to a player ranked 52 places below him in the rankings.

At the 2015 World Championship, Trump produced his best snooker in the quarter-finals where he knocked in four centuries during a 13–4 thrashing of Ding Junhui. He stated afterwards that if he could play to the same standard in the rest of the event he would secure his first world title. After holding an early 2–1 lead over Stuart Bingham in the semi-finals, Trump could not hold onto his advantage and fell 16–14 behind. He then made successive centuries to force a deciding frame in which he missed a red to the middle pocket due to a kick, and Bingham took the match 17–16.

Trump defeated Tom Ford and Ryan Day to reach the quarter-finals of the 2014 World Championship, where he played Neil Robertson. Trump led 6–2, 9–6, and 11–8, before Robertson launched a bold counterattack to take the last five frames and win the match 13–11. Trump received criticism for not acknowledging the fact that, during the match, Robertson had become the first player to make 100 centuries in a single season, instead choosing to walk out of the arena. He later said that Robertson's achievement meant nothing to him and he chose to congratulate his opponent after the match.

He defeated James Wattana 10–5 in the final round of qualifying at the 2007 World Championship, to become the third-youngest player (at the time) ever to reach the main stage of the tournament (champions Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan had both been younger when they made their Crucible debuts). Trump is one of only five players to make their first appearance at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre at the age of 17 (along with Hendry, O'Sullivan, China's Liu Chuang and Belgium's Luca Brecel). He played the 2005 champion and sixth seed, Shaun Murphy, in the first round, but lost 6–10 despite having led 6–5 earlier in the match.

Trump started the season with a 3–5 loss to Mark Davis in the first round of the 2011 Australian Goldfields Open. However, this disappointment was soon forgotten as he won the second PTC event of the season, beating Ding Junhui 4–0 in the final at a virtual home venue of the South West Snooker Academy. He then lost 1–5 against Stuart Bingham in the Shanghai Masters first round. Trump finished runner-up to Neil Robertson in the eighth PTC event of the season, but he immediately rediscovered his winning touch by capturing Event 9 when he overcame Ronnie O'Sullivan 4–3 in the final in Antwerp, Belgium, in just over an hour's worth of play. He would later top the Order of Merit after all twelve PTC events had been played, thus qualifying for the 2012 Finals. He suffered a shock in the last 16 as world number 51 Xiao Guodong beat him 4–2, despite playing with a broken bone in his hand.

Trump continued his fine form by reaching the semi-finals of the Masters in January. He defeated Stuart Bingham in the first round and O'Sullivan once more in the quarter-finals 6–2, to make his record against the four-time World Champion five wins and two defeats, from their seven meetings in tournament play. He met Robertson in the semi-finals for the second successive major event and it was the Australian who exacted his revenge for the defeat suffered in York a month earlier, as he triumphed 6–3. Trump reached three quarter-finals in his next four ranking events to become the world number 2 in April, behind Mark Selby, meaning that Trump had risen seven places in the rankings this season.

Trump started the season at the Wuxi Classic in China, where he lost to Robert Milkins 3–5 in the second round, having beaten Dominic Dale 5–1 in the opener. At the Shanghai Masters he saw off Barry Hawkins, Mark Allen, Graeme Dott and Mark Williams to reach the final where he faced John Higgins. Trump surged into a 5–0 lead and, despite Higgins making a 147 break in the next frame, claimed a 7–2 advantage after the first session. Upon the resumption of play, Higgins won six frames in a row with the match eventually going into a deciding frame; Trump made a break of 35 but ran out of position, allowing Higgins to secure the title with a 10–9 victory. However, Trump was able to bounce back at the next ranking event, the inaugural International Championship, by claiming his third ranking event title. He eliminated Fergal O'Brien 6–3, Aditya Mehta 6–0 and then edged past Allen 6–5 in the quarter-finals. Trump thrashed Peter Ebdon 9–1 in the semi-finals to become snooker's tenth world number one, and recovered from 6–8 down in the final against Neil Robertson to triumph 10–8.

Trump met John Higgins in back to back Players Tour Championship finals, losing the first 2–4, but gained revenge in the second, the Bulgarian Open by whitewashing him 4–0. Trump reached the final of the Premier League having beating Neil Robertson in the semi-finals, but lost 2–7 to Stuart Bingham. In the defence of his 2011 UK Championship title, Trump played Mark Joyce in the first round. Despite leading 3–0 and 5–2, Trump lost the last four frames of the match to suffer a major shock exit against the world number 50. The disappointment was compounded when Mark Selby went on to win the title, reclaiming the top ranking in the process. Trump was defeated 1–6 by Graeme Dott at the Masters and 4–5 by Anthony Hamilton in the first round of the German Masters. He regained his form and the world number one ranking at the Welsh Open. He came back from 1–3 down to beat Dominic Dale 4–3 in the first round, after which he asserted that "players are changing their game to play slower against me. Dominic was too slow for himself and it caught him out towards the end". More comfortable victories ensued over Andrew Higginson and Pankaj Advani to set up a semi-final meeting with Stephen Maguire. Trump initially raced into a 2–0 lead only to lose five frames in succession to the rejuvenated Maguire. Trump pulled back two more frames and looked set to force a decider after a 50 break in the tenth frame, but Maguire ground out the frame and won the match 6–4.

At the World Open, Trump gained revenge over Joyce by dispatching him 5–0 and beat Nigel Bond 5–1, before Matthew Stevens won their last eight match 5–3. Trump qualified for the PTC Finals by finishing second on the Order of Merit, but lost to Alfie Burden 3–4 in the first round. He also lost in the first round of the China Open 3–5 to good friend Jack Lisowski, surrendering his world number one ranking to Mark Selby in the process and headed into the 2013 World Championship in less than auspicious form.

Trump said that he had prepared better than ever for the World Championship and beat Dominic Dale in the first round for the second year in a row, this time by 10–5. At 8–7 ahead in the last 16 against Marco Fu, Trump raced away with five consecutive frames to triumph 13–7 and set up a quarter-final clash with Shaun Murphy. Trump came from 3–8 down to level at 8–8 at the conclusion of the second session. The deciding frame lasted 53 minutes with Trump winning it on the yellow to seal a 13–12 victory. He met Ronnie O'Sullivan in the semi-finals, but was unable to capitalise on the chances that came his way: though he potted a ball in 24 of the 28 frames played, he could only make four breaks above 50 in an 11–17 defeat. Trump said afterwards "It's probably the worst I've played all tournament. I would've probably expected to lose to anyone the way I played."

At the start of the season Trump was ranked third in the world rankings. He began the season poorly as he lost in the first round of the Wuxi Classic, Shanghai Masters and International Championship, as well as failing to qualify for the Indian Open. In November, he reached the final of the minor-ranking Kay Suzanne Memorial Cup but lost 1–4 to Mark Allen. Later that month, he made the first official maximum break of his career in the Antwerp Open during a last-32 defeat against Mark Selby. He reached the fourth round of the UK Championship, where Allen defeated him 6–4, and he lost 5–6 to Marco Fu in the opening round of the Masters.

In the German Masters, he dropped just four frames in winning five matches to reach his first ranking final of the season where he played Ding Junhui. Trump was two frames ahead twice in the first session but ended it level at 4–4; he then lost five of the next six frames upon resumption of play to be defeated 5–9. At the Welsh Open, he was defeated 3–4 by John Higgins in the last 16. Higgins was again the victor when the two met in the last 16 of the World Open, winning 5–4 after Trump had taken a 4–0 lead. Trump won the non-ranking Championship League title during the season by beating Martin Gould 3–1.

Trump was thrashed 0–5 by Stephen Maguire in the third round of the Wuxi Classic, but responded a week later by claiming his fourth ranking title, and his first for 20 months, at the Australian Goldfields Open, by defeating home favourite Neil Robertson 9–5 in the final. He reached the final of the Paul Hunter Classic but lost 2–4 to Mark Allen. He then suffered first and second round exits to Dominic Dale and Jamie Burnett respectively in the next two ranking events. He advanced to the final of the Champion of Champions but fell 3–8 down to Ronnie O'Sullivan, before reducing his deficit to a single frame by taking four successive frames with the help of two centuries. However, O'Sullivan won the two frames he needed to triumph 10–7, with Trump claiming his opponent's standard of play throughout the match was the best he had ever encountered. The pair also met in the final of the UK Championship in which Trump was 4–9 behind with a highest break of just 56. However, he won the 14th frame and then made back-to-back centuries and a break of 86 to only trail 8–9. He was 0–59 down in the next frame, but cleared the table with a 67 break to send the match into an unlikely decider; O'Sullivan then made a title-winning break after Trump had failed to escape from a snooker. O'Sullivan afterwards described the match as the hardest of his career. At the Masters, Trump lost 4–6 against Stephen Maguire in the first round. He made the second 147 of his career in the quarter-finals of the German Masters, but was knocked out 4–5 by Mark Selby.

At the inaugural World Grand Prix, Trump eliminated Mark Williams 4–3 on the final black, but then fell 1–5 behind against Martin Gould in the semi-finals. However, he then took five successive frames, outscoring Gould by 395 points to 37, to win the match 6–5. He played O'Sullivan for the third time in a final this season and was 4–7 behind, but then won six frames in a row, which included a 142 break (the highest of the tournament), to finish 10–7 and claim his second title of the season. He also reached the semi-finals of the PTC Grand Final, where he lost 2–4 to Williams.

In the defence of his Australian Goldfields Open title, Trump was knocked out in the quarter-finals 1–5 by Stephen Maguire. He reached the final of the Shanghai Masters, but a slow start from Trump saw him trail world number 54 Kyren Wilson 3–6 after the first session. Wilson also had leads of 8–4 and 9–7, before Trump sent the match into a deciding frame which Wilson won. Trump scored 278 points to nil in taking the first three frames of his third round UK Championship match with Liang Wenbo, but eventually lost 4–6. Trump branded the collapse an embarrassment and said it was the worst he had felt as a professional. In the new year, Trump and Neil Robertson set a record of six centuries in a best-of-11-frame match (four from Trump and two from Robertson). Trump closed it out with a sublime 129 break to win 6–5, with Robertson describing it as "the greatest Masters match ever". He was knocked out 4–6 in the semi-finals by Barry Hawkins.

His first title of the season came at the Championship League where he defeated Ronnie O'Sullivan 3–2 in the final. Soon afterwards he won his fifth ranking title and first for almost two years by beating Ricky Walden 10–4 in the China Open final. After trailing Liang Wenbo 3–7 in the first round of the 2016 World Championship, Trump tweeted that the drinks would be on him if he could turn it around. He duly did by winning 10–8 and put a few hundred pounds behind the local bar. Trump could not escape from a similar position against Ding Junhui in the second round and was beaten 10–13.

Trump thrashed John Higgins 4–0 in the quarter-finals of the 2016 European Masters and then overcame Mark Selby 6–2 to play Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final. Trump was down 6–8, but took each of the remaining three frames to triumph 9–8 and win his sixth ranking title. In his next event, the English Open, he comfortably beat Higgins again in the quarter-finals, this time 5–1, and then defeated Barry Hawkins 6–2 to make it 14 wins in a row. However, he lost 6–9 to Liang Wenbo in the final after having missed a good chance to make it 7–7. Trump edged past Shaun Murphy 6–5 on the final black to reach the semi-finals of the International Championship where he was knocked out 4–9 by Ding Junhui. He had a surprise 2–6 defeat to Oliver Lines in the second round of the UK Championship. He was 5–1 up on Higgins in the semi-finals of the Scottish Open as he made three centuries and a 99 break, but Higgins recovered to win 6–5. In an extremely high quality first round match at the Masters, Trump made two centuries and Marco Fu three, followed by nine further breaks above 50 as Fu edged through 6–5.

Hawkins missed a match-ball yellow in their quarter-final clash at the Welsh Open, and Trump cleared the colours to win the match 5–4. He then defeated Scott Donaldson 6–3 to play Stuart Bingham in the final; he was 0–4 down, before recovering to lead 8–7, but lost the last two frames and the match. Another final followed at the Gibraltar Open as he come back from 0–2 down in the semi-finals against Ryan Day, but he lost the final 2–4 to Murphy. He reached his third ranking event final inside a month at the Players Championship where he reeled off a match-defining six frames in a row from 2–5 down to Fu, and went on to win his seventh ranking title 10–8. In the third round of the China Open, Trump made his first televised 147 as he defeated Tian Pengfei 5–3, but he suffered a surprise 3–5 loss to Hossein Vafaei in the quarter-finals.

Trump was third in the world rankings at the start of the season. He successfully defended his European Masters title in October, defeating Stuart Bingham 9–7 in the final. The following month, he reached the quarter-finals of the International Championship where he was edged out 5–6 by Mark Allen. He then reached the final of the Shanghai Masters for the second time, but was heavily defeated 3–10 by Ronnie O'Sullivan.

He made semi-final appearances at three other ranking events this season: at the Scottish Open, he lost 4–6 to Cao Yupeng whom he had defeated two months earlier in the semi-finals of the European Masters; at the German Masters, he was beaten 1–6 by Mark Williams, after making the highest break of the tournament (140) in his quarter-final clash with Ding Junhui; and in defending his title at the Players Championship, he was narrowly defeated by Ronnie O'Sullivan 5–6. In January, he reached the semi-finals of the 2018 Masters where, despite leads of 3–1 and 5–2 earlier in the match, he was eliminated 5–6 by Kyren Wilson.

He reached the final of the Champion of Champions, where his opponent was Neil Robertson. Leading 9–8 in a best-of-19 frames match, Trump appeared to be on the verge of claiming the title as Robertson required snookers to win the 18th frame. However, Trump was eventually defeated 10–9.

In November, Trump won his third ranking tournament of the season, the Northern Ireland Open. In the final, he beat Ronnie O'Sullivan 9–7, the same scoreline with which he had won the title the previous year. He failed to earn a place in the European Masters the following month, losing 3–5 to Ian Burns in the first qualifying round. He defeated Neil Robertson 9–6 in the final of the German Masters, a match that featured a lot of "high-class safety", to claim his fourth ranking title of the season.

Two weeks later, on 15 March, he claimed the all-time record of six ranking titles in a single season, defeating Kyren Wilson 4–3 at an empty venue at the Gibraltar Open.

At the 2012 World Championship, Trump defeated Dominic Dale in their first round match by a 10–7 scoreline, despite suffering from food poisoning. However, he was knocked out in the second round by Ali Carter 12–13, having let slip a 12–9 lead, ending his chances of becoming world number 1 this season.

Trump defeated former world champions Peter Ebdon and Shaun Murphy at the 2011 China Open, to reach his first professional ranking event final. He then triumphed over former Masters champion Mark Selby 10–8 to win his first major title. He won £60,000 in prize money and provisionally climbed into the top 16 of the world rankings. On his way to winning the China Open final, Trump made his 100th competitive century break.

Trump had already qualified for the 2011 World Championship when he won the China Open, and was drawn against reigning champion Neil Robertson in the first round, whom he defeated 10–8. In subsequent rounds, he knocked out Martin Gould 13–6, Graeme Dott 13–5 and Ding Junhui 17–15 to qualify for his first World Championship final. He lost the final 15–18 to John Higgins.

On 11 December 2011, Trump won his second ranking event tournament, the 2011 UK Championship at the Barbican Centre in York. He defeated Dominic Dale 6–4 in the last 32, before winning the final two frames of the second round to edge out Ronnie O'Sullivan, 6–5. After the match, Trump claimed that he had been "outplayed" and was "lucky" to have got through. He then dispatched Stephen Maguire 6–3 and faced Neil Robertson in the semi-finals. The semi-final match was a tight and nervy affair, with Trump stating afterwards that he believed Robertson was trying to stifle his natural game by "slowing it down" and "making things awkward", but nevertheless the Bristolian triumphed, 9–7 to reach his first UK final. In the final he played Mark Allen and trailed 1–3 early on in the best-of-19-frames match. However, Trump then produced a match-defining run of seven straight frames to take an 8–3 lead. Despite a strong fightback from Allen, who won five of the next six frames to trail just 8–9, Trump managed to clinch the 18th frame with a break of 91 and won the final 10–8. Six-time winner of the event, Steve Davis, said that Trump's performances during the championship had shown that he was "spearheading his generation" of snooker players. The victory took him up to a career-high world ranking of 5.

His opponent was John Higgins, in a re-run of the 2011 final. Trailing 4–5 in the early stages, Trump dominated the second session, winning eight consecutive frames to lead 12–5 overnight, a display which Steve Davis described as the "controlled annihilation of a great player". Trump led 16–9 going into the final session, and won the opening two frames of the evening to seal an 18–9 win, and with it his first world title. The two players scored eleven centuries between them, a record for a professional match. Trump's seven centuries in the final equalled Ding Junhui's record for the most by one player in a World Championship match. Winning the world title also made Trump the 11th player to complete snooker's Triple Crown.

He won the 2009 Championship League to qualify for the Premier League event later in the year, in which he won four of his six matches including a 4–2 win over Ronnie O'Sullivan. He finished second in the League table but lost 1–5 to O'Sullivan in his semi-final.

The 2009–10 season was less successful for Trump as he failed to progress beyond the last 32 in any of the ranking tournaments. In January 2010, he joined Romford-based snooker agency Grove Leisure.

Trump's fortunes changed for the 2008–09 season when he reached the venue stages of the first four events. At the Grand Prix, he benefited from Graeme Dott's withdrawal before defeating Joe Perry 5–2 in the last 16, despite Perry feeling that he had outplayed Trump, who himself admitted to not having played well. Then came the biggest win of his career so far, when he defeated Ronnie O'Sullivan 5–4 to reach the semi-final, in which he was himself defeated 4–6 by John Higgins. He beat double world champion Mark Williams to qualify for the 2008 Bahrain Championship. He won a qualifying event in 2008 to gain entry into the 2009 Masters as the only qualifier, but was defeated by Mark Allen in the first round. He again failed to reach the main stage of the World Championship, losing 8–10 to Stephen Lee in the final qualifying round, having led 6–3. Lee noted that Trump had not followed the custom of apologising for fluked shots during the match, and concluded "all I've heard about for the last five years in my area is how good he is, and he is good .. but he's blown a 6–3 lead today and hopefully that will stick with him for a while yet." Trump ended the season in the Top 32 of the rankings for the first time. He was coached for a short time by Tony Chappel.

He did not build on this form in the 2007–08 season, only reaching the last 32 of the Welsh Open by beating Joe Swail 5–2 in the first round. He also missed out on the 2008 World Championship after a 9–10 loss to Swail in the final round of qualifying, despite having led 9–5.

Trump turned professional in 2005, aged 16, and captured his first ranking title at the 2011 China Open, defeating Selby 10–8 in the final. The following month, he reached the final of the 2011 World Championship, but lost 15–18 to John Higgins. He claimed his first Triple Crown title later that year when he won the 2011 UK Championship, defeating Mark Allen 10–8 in the final.

Trump joined the professional tour in the 2005–06 season, and at the Welsh Open became the youngest player ever to qualify for the final stages of a ranking tournament. He also reached the last-48 stage at the China Open, losing 4–5 to Michael Holt, although this was designated the final qualifying round and was actually played in Prestatyn, Wales.

Judd Trump (born 20 August 1989) is an English professional snooker player from Bristol who is the reigning World Champion and the current world number one. His career total of 17 ranking titles puts him in joint seventh place (with Mark Selby) on the all-time list.