Snooker news: 'He's not doing his homework' – Judd Trump hits back at 'salty' John Virgo criticism
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ByEurosport
Updated 08/10/2021 at 09:23 GMT
Judd Trump has hit back at John Virgo after the former UK champion and veteran snooker pundit claimed the 22-times ranking event winner was "disappointing" last term. Despite winning five ranking titles as world number one, Virgo felt Trump flattered to deceive because he did not win the World Championship, UK Championship or Masters, an event he was forced to miss due to a positive Covid-19 test.
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Judd Trump has accused John Virgo of not doing his "homework" as a snooker pundit after the former UK champion claimed the world number two was "disappointing" last season.
Trump lifted the English Open, Northern Ireland Open, World Grand Prix, German Masters and Gibraltar Open and lost finals at the UK Championship and Championship League, but according to Virgo has still to prove himself as a "consistent winner".
The Bristol player has lifted 22 ranking titles and the Masters with 14 of his victories astonishingly coming since the first of three 9-7 wins over six-times world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in the 2018 Northern Ireland Open final.
Trump also lost 10-9 to Neil Robertson in an epic UK Championship final and 13-11 to an inspired Shaun Murphy in the World Championship quarter-finals while he was forced to sit out the Masters due to a positive coronavirus test.
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Steve Davis, Dennis Taylor, Ken Doherty and John Virgo at the Crucible.
Image credit: Eurosport
"He’s got tremendous cueing ability. Some of the shots he pulls off are sensational and the fizz he can put into the cue ball," said Virgo on the Talking Snooker Podcast.
"But as I’ve said before, Jimmy White could do all that. You’ll be remembered on what you achieve. Unless you win a few World Championships and this, that and the other, you’re not going to get any recognition," added the 1979 UK winner.
He’s won one World Championship, he’s won a UK and won a Masters but he’s got to start building on that because he was disappointing, for me, last season.
"I remember when he missed the pink against Robertson in the UK, shots like that can wear you out in the end. Great talent, he’s just got to prove to me that he’s a consistent winner."
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Trump believes Virgo's outburst only proves the point that he made before the World Championship in April that too many snooker commentators are out of touch with the modern game.
“It all comes back to some of the stuff I said before the World Championship," Trump, who will return to top spot in the world ranking after next week's Northern Ireland Open, told WST.
A few of the people in and around the game, that are trying to promote it, are turning up and not doing their homework. It is tough, I don’t see how that can be disappointing. It is his opinion, maybe he (Virgo) is a bit salty after what I said at the World Championship.
"I think we need more people involved in the game that show passion, interest and do their homework about the players. Just people like (former Masters winner) Alan McManus. If everyone could show the passion he does, then the game would be in a better place.”
Ahead of his quest for a fourth Northern Open LIVE on Eurosport, Trump – who faces Andrew Pagett in his opening match in Belfast on Sunday night – believes fellow world champions O'Sullivan, Mark Selby, Neil Robertson and John Higgins remain the biggest threats on the green baize.
“I just feel that a gulf has developed between the class of the top four or five players and the rest. We haven’t seen that for a while," added Trump. "A lot of the time over the past 10 years, you go into events thinking anyone in the top 16 or top 20 can win it.
Now it is the same four or five players every single event that are showing the hunger to turn up and win all the time. You have Mark Selby back to the best he has played, Ronnie is always there or thereabouts, John Higgins looks like he is trying to get fit and motivated again.
“For me there are so many players that struggled in Milton Keynes because every tournament felt the same. I take a lot of pride in getting myself up for it there and being able to win so many events. I reached seven finals and won five of them.
"Apart from winning the six events two seasons ago and Stephen Hendry in his prime, that is probably one of the best seasons ever. I don’t know how many times players have reached seven finals and won five of them. That obviously wasn’t good enough for John Virgo, but we go again and try to get to a few more this year.
I still think I’m the best and until someone wins more tournaments in a calendar year than me I will count myself as the best. I think that is the way it should work.
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