‘I was really c***!’ – Judd Trump gives brutal assessment after failing ‘to get up for it’ at UK Championship

Updated 30/11/2021 at 20:11 GMT

"I was just poor really, c*** from the start to the finish. It always seems to be the same in this venue, I always struggle here, for what reason I don’t know,” said world number two Judd Trump after he was knocked out of the UK Championship by Matthew Selt. You can stream the 2021 UK Championship live and on-demand on discover+ and watch all the action live via Eurosport and at eurosport.co.uk

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Judd Trump gave a brutal assessment of his performance after he lost 6-3 to Matthew Selt at the UK Championship in York.

The world number two – fresh from winning the Champion of Champions event – contributed a 68 in frame one but was flat thereafter as Selt ran in runs of 63, 55, 55, 60 and 128 to set up a last-16 encounter with Barry Hawkins.

And the 2019 world champion pulled no punches when analysing his performance after the match.

UK Championship

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00:10:20

20/11/2022 at 16:52

I was just poor really, c*** from the start to the finish. It always seems to be the same in this venue, I always struggle here, for what reason I don’t know.

"The tournament just seems to take so long and I can’t seem to get up for it. I just felt flat.”

Trump, who Eurosport's Jimmy White said would "be kicking himself", is not the only big name to exit the tournament early, with Shaun Murphy, Mark Selby and Neil Robertson already out.

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That leaves Ronnie O’Sullivan as the overwhelming favourite for an event he has already won seven times. Should the six-time world champion win the triple crown event, it would represent a record-extending 38th ranking event win.

It would also come a matter of weeks after Trump said that O’Sullivan has lost his fear factor.

“You are just happy to win tournaments these days, it is very hard to win any tournament for all the top players, Ronnie O’Sullivan included," Trump told reporters.

Look at Ronnie, he can’t win an event to save his life at the moment. Even the so-called smaller events have all the top players still in them.

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"I just think he’s lost a little bit of the belief. When you don’t win you don’t have the belief and people aren’t scared to beat you.

“He’s still getting to finals and he’s always going to breeze through the first few rounds because he’s that good. When he comes up against a top player there’s just not that gulf in class, I don’t think, anymore.

“No one’s that scared to play him, anyone’s game is good enough to beat him on their day, that’s what’s happened over the last year.”

O’Sullivan last won a ranking event – the 2020 world title – 15 months ago.