Judd Trump: How my snooker style compares to Ronnie O'Sullivan – and why I’m happier at Scottish Open
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Updated 09/12/2021 at 16:38 GMT
Judd Trump reached the Scottish Open last 16 in style when beating David Lilley 4-0 with breaks of 83, 109, 96 and 86. Speaking to Eurosport afterwards, Trump spoke about his tendency to focus on pots over positioning, and explained why he is happier when keeping the shot-clock down. Stream the Scottish Open live and on-demand on discovery+.
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Judd Trump provided a fascinating insight into how the break-building style of some modern players compares to the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins, and the world No 2 also explained why he is happier at the Scottish Open than he was at the UK Championship.
After beating David Lilley 4-0 with breaks of 83, 109, 96 and 86 to reach the last 16, Trump sat down with Eurosport to evaluate his performance.
Eurosport pundit Alan McManus highlighted Trump’s willingness to allow the cue ball to travel around the table, and the 2019 world champion said this was because he prioritises pots over position.
Trump said: “I think for me and most of the modern players now, one of the reasons the cue ball isn’t as close in is because we seem to split the balls all over the table.
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When we go into them, we go into them a lot harder than Ronnie, Higgins or Ding would. They always stay in the same area whereas I smash them as hard as I can and get them wide. I don’t care if the ball is going around the table, as long as I’ve got the balls in the open I just try and pot every ball that’s there.
“I’ve always been the same. I make sure of the pot, rather than the position. I’ll pot the ball wherever it lands.”
McManus added: “I think players way back, they would try to play really precise positions, but the modern player doesn’t need to so much, and if you don’t get onto blue or pink, maybe green or yellow is good enough.”
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Trump said this approach was partly down to a lack of practice on the tables they would then perform on in tournaments.
“If I was able to practice on the table for a week solid, I’d know [how the table would play] and I’d try to land the cue ball perfect every time,” Trump said.
“When you go on their first frame, I don’t want to be too precise because you might land dead straight. I’d rather give myself a shot at the ball and go from there.
“There’s a bigger margin of error as you bring the cue ball back further. If you’re close to the black or pink you’ve only got a certain amount of space to finish perfect.”
Trump playing ‘happier’ snooker
Trump lost 6-3 to Matthew Selt in the UK Championship last month, and he said the way he played during that defeat forced a change that has made him happier at the Scottish Open.
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He added: “It was the last tournament really. Even when I won the Champion of Champions, for me it’s not that enjoyable the way I win sometimes. I’d rather go out there and get my shot time to 16, 17 seconds, just not think about anything at all. If I miss that way I’m a lot more happier than taking 20-25 seconds like the last tournament when I lost in the UK [Championship]. I slowed myself down too much and thinking too much.
“I think Neil [Robertson] is the biggest culprit of it. When he slows down, he doesn’t play anywhere near as good, and sometimes I get into that mould and things go wrong when you take too much time.”
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Stream the Scottish Open live and on-demand on discovery+. You can also watch all the action live via Eurosport and at eurosport.co.uk
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