Judd Trump continued his near-perfect start to the season by winning the first ever Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters on Saturday, a familiar winner in new surroundings for the sport.
The final against Mark Williams proved to be something of a classic, certainly with an unforgettable ending as the Welshman made a break of 62 in the deciding frame only to miss and see Trump clear up with 72 to claim a 10-9 win, the trophy and enormous top prize of £500,000.
‘It was a pretty special feeling,’ said Trump. ‘I wasn’t playing well all day, I played terrible, Mark was the much better player so to be able to find that from somewhere was incredible.
‘There was another game against Mark, in the Masters final a year or two ago when I didn’t feel like I deserved to win that one either, but I think this one tops it because of the manner I was able to win it and pull off that clearance under that pressure. It will be a highlight at the end of my career.’
The incredible prize money on offer in Riyadh saw Trump pocket as much as Kyren Wilson did for winning the World Championship earlier this year and Williams the same as Crucible runner-up Jak Jones got, £200,000.
The new event has been branded ‘The Fourth Major’ as a result, but the world number one is not sure where it stands in his long list of career achievements, sticking to his long held position that he treats every tournament just the same.
‘It’s difficult for me to put one above anything else because I’ve always said I treat everything equally, I’ve probably told you that a million times, I try my best in every single one,’ he said.
‘If people want to judge this as the fourth biggest, the second, the 20th, it doesn’t really matter to me. I’m just happy that in the end we’ve managed to put on a good final, a good advert for snooker and I hope that can inspire people to play.’
The crowds in Riyadh drew a lot of attention because the tournament did not seem to be drawing a lot of interest locally.
Throughout the early rounds there was almost no one there and, outside of Ronnie O’Sullivan’s games, it wasn’t until the semi-final that fans really turned up in any significant number.
Trump says it is actually no different to many events he has played in abroad, specifically in China, even as recently as this season despite great interest in the sport in the country.
He felt the atmosphere in the final was excellent and reckons it’s down to the players to put on as good a show as possible and attract the crowds earlier on.
‘I think there’s been a lot of times in my career where I’ve played in front of much smaller crowds in China,’ he said. ‘Even in finals when I was coming through. People are quick to forget, the last tournament in Xi’an I played three or four games with 20 or 30 people watching. It’s not like it’s anything new to us.’
On the atmosphere in the final, he added: ”It’s difficult because obviously I’m caught up in the moment but to me it was unbelievable, but I’m going to be biased because I was clearing up.
‘I’m not going to sit here and say it was the best atmosphere I’ve ever played in, but it certainly was up there, it was a great atmosphere at the end. I hope it came across on the TV because it was pretty special.
‘It was a slow start, but Ronnie’s games were full. People will say they’re not interested in snooker here, but they showed up for Ronnie so they are interested in snooker, it’s just up to us to be more attacking, quick, put on a show and then they’ll come.’
With the arrival of the mega-money event on the calendar and the Crucible’s contract to host the World Championship ending in 2027, there is talk that Saudi could be an option for sport’s biggest event.
The 35-year-old is not so sure about that idea, hoping that the new event can be built on rather than the Kingdom getting snooker’s showpiece.
‘It would be nice just to build this tournament up and have the Worlds either in Sheffield or around the world,’ he said. ‘I’d like to see it move around to be honest.
‘I’d like to see it in the Crucible every couple of years but also go to China and Europe and other places. If it stays at the Crucible I don’t mind, I just think it might be better off for here to grow this event as big as possible rather than have the World Championship here.’
Trump beat a man in the final who is 14 years his senior and still competing at the very top of the sport.
Williams, along with his fellow Class of 92 legends O’Sullivan and John Higgins are still in the world’s top 16 as they approach 50 and Trump reckons they will remain there for a few years to come yet, saying they are ‘miles and miles in front’ of anyone else he has ever played.
‘Ronnie, John and Mark are always critical, saying they’re on the decline, but I’ve never seen him [Williams] pot long balls like that as consistently over a whole game, he’s never done it against me.
‘I think those three in terms of what I’ve played, they’re miles and miles in front of everyone else, in terms of how good they are. They’re able to push the limits and they’re maybe showing a tiny bit of decline, but they’re still unbelievable players. I think they’ve still got five or 10 years at least at the top of the game.
‘They’re all so good, it’s a bit of a freak for them all to come at the same time. I can’t see them declining rapidly in the next five or 10 years, I think they’ll still be in the top 16.’
Trump gave us a rare insight into his private life in his winner’s speech in Riyadh, mentioning his girlfriend, with their relationship seeing him spend a lot of time in Hong Kong in recent months, during which time he has won the Shanghai Masters and reached the final of the Xi’an Grand Prix.
‘It’s quite new, just seven or eight months, but I’ve spent a lot of time in Hong Kong,’ he explained. ‘It’s been a difficult period behind the scenes, some stuff happening, so it was quite an emotional victory. When you win like that all kind of emotions come out, but I think the whole team behind me, obviously my family, but also my girlfriend supporting me makes me what I am and inspires me on the table.’
Despite winning over £750,000 on the table since the start of the season, Trump is not intending to slow down in his schedule, almost certainly heading to Brentwood for the English Open next week.
He wants to defend the title he won there last year and, worryingly for his rivals, he thinks there is better form to come as he wasn’t even playing his best in Riyadh.
‘It looks likely that I’ll go,’ he said. ‘I’ll be going back to Hong Kong, but because there’s two tournaments in a row in the UK [the British Open] it’s probably no point missing one and playing the other so I’ll probably show up and see what happens. It’s not quite the same in Brentwood as the final here, but hopefully I can replicate what I did last year. When I commit I don’t like to pull out, I either play in it or I don’t, so now I’ve committed I probably will play.
‘I’ve had an amazing start to the season and full of confidence after that win. I’ve not played my best apart from Shanghai when I played really, really well. The last two tournaments have been a bit of a struggle but it goes to show the mindset I have at the moment, how I’m able to dig in and give myself that one last chance every single time.
‘I think that break in the deciding frame is one that people aren’t going to forget for a while and it’s a final that people aren’t going to forget.’
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