Crucible titles key if Trump wants to ‘end all arguments’ over his status – Hendon

When Judd Trump was born in August 1989, snooker was dominated by a winning machine.

Steve Davis was world champion, world No. 1 and more responsible than anyone for making this upstart sport respectable and therefore attractive to sponsors, television and family audiences.

Trump is now just three ranking titles behind John Higgins on 31. Stephen Hendry remains second on 36 with Ronnie O’Sullivan out in front on 41.

Eras differ. When Davis turned professional there was only one ranking tournament, the World Championship. Even at his peak in the late 80s there were no more than eight a season, as opposed to the 17 available in the current campaign. Had there been more, he would have won more.

But standards have risen and the game has become more competitive, so for Trump to keep adding trophies to his collection on such a regular basis is to his enormous credit.

He is particularly adept at winning tournaments where every player comes in at the last 128 stage, meaning you have to play every day during the week with no time for rest.

O’Sullivan has not triumphed in an event played under this format since December 2018; since that point in time, Trump has won 15 such titles.

He has done so by accepting that it won’t always be pretty. To keep going to the well, day after day, and be able to find something takes a multitude of skills. The pioneer of ‘naughty’ snooker is now a master at grinding out results if his A-game is absent.

Trump has become a brilliant tactician, able to out-think opponents as well as out-score them. He is still knocking in the big breaks as well, with 76 centuries this season putting him well out in front of the rest.

The other quality a relentless winner needs is nerve. Trump now wins more than his fair share of close frames, soaking up pressure to shift the psychological momentum his way.

This was never more evident in Yushan than during his defeat of Kyren Wilson in the last 16, in which he won an hour-long fifth frame, albeit with two mighty flukes on green and brown. (Davis himself was often accused of being lucky. His deadpan response was, “I have more luck because I play more matches.”)

Trump is a very different player to Davis but they share certain traits. Both were painfully shy as boys, finding solace on the snooker table where introverts have traditionally thrived.

Both brought a different way of playing to the fore. For Davis, it was based on technique and solid preparation. Trump also puts the work in but possesses great cue power and is able to get the cue ball fizzing in all directions.

Davis loved winning. One or two titles a year was not enough. Trump has the same attitude, treating each tournament the same and not letting success go to his head.

The big challenge now – perhaps the only one – is to add to his solitary world title. It’s five years since Trump produced an exhibition of shot-making brilliance to beat John Higgins at the Crucible. He reached the final again in 2022, losing to O’Sullivan, but has otherwise disappointed in Sheffield in recent times.

He knows that, for all his considerable success elsewhere, careers are judged by a player’s record in the World Championship, the tournament which towers above all others due to its history, prominence and the marathon length of its matches.

So often at the Crucible, Trump seems to start slowly. Even in 2019 he only just scraped past Thepchaiya Un Nooh in the first round, 10-9. In other years he has narrowly come through his opening encounter or been beaten, as he was last year by Anthony McGill.

This is in contrast to regular tour events where he slogs his way through the early rounds often without finding top gear. The key then is to find a way of taking this game to Sheffield.

Davis once famously said the secret to winning at snooker was to “play as if it means nothing when it means everything.” The problem is, it really does mean everything. If it didn’t then the king of the 80s would not have missed that last black against Dennis Taylor in the 1985 final.

Aside from the additional pressure the World Championship brings, Trump’s main problem is the strength of his rivals. Neil Robertson will have to qualify for the first time since 2006 and if he does get through will be playing one of the top 16 seeds – maybe Trump – in the first round.

O’Sullivan is going into this year’s event with the ambition to add an eighth world title to the eight UK Championship and Masters crowns he has earned.

Add in the likes of Mark Allen, Mark Selby and a host of others with the drive and potential to succeed and the tournament is looking harder than ever to win.

There is a certain snobbery to the way some see snooker, dismissing events such as the World Open as somehow lesser than the established British tournaments, an attitude rooted largely in nostalgia.

Yet the fact remains that there is one trophy which counts more than the rest. It has been presented to every world champion since the first in 1927 and Judd Trump will be aware that the likes of Davis, Hendry and O’Sullivan are way ahead of him on this particular measure of greatness.

As attention turns once again to the Crucible, he knows this is the place where he can end all arguments as to his status.