Neil Robertson and Judd Trump have no beef going into their eye-catching UK Championship contest on Tuesday, despite some memorable comments from Trump after their last contest.
The Australian beat the Englishman at the Champion of Champions earlier this month and Trump felt it was not a deserved victory.
‘I thought I was very unlucky. To be honest I think Neil knows that he didn’t deserve to win like that, but that happens.
‘He put in a good spell to go 3-1 up, then after that he had quite a few chances, missed quite a few long balls and got safe every time. It’s just one of those days.’
He added: ‘It was a tough game, it was very slow,’ he said. ‘I love Neil but there was a lot of slow play and he’s a much better player when he just gets on with it.’
The Thunder from Down Under clearly heard the comments because he suggested Trump had cursed him with bad luck and asked him to remove the hex.
Robertson had to come through qualifying to reach the UK Championship in York, and asked if that meant the curse was lifted, he said: ‘Had a bit of fun with that, but who knows?’
Looking back on his 6-4 win at the Champion of Champions, he said: ‘I think if you look back and analyse the game I was probably a bit unlucky not to win 6-3.
‘The thing is that when you’re out there you look at things going against you. When a microphone is stuck in front of your face literally seconds after you got beat, it’s very tough to give a full assessment of the match.
‘I had some luck, incredible luck at some points in that last frame, but so did he. Then it didn’t matter because he had the chance to clear up the colours to win, so the luck didn’t matter in the end, because he got a chance.’
Asked whether Trump’s comments would add anything to their meeting in York, he said: ‘No not really, he’s pretty good at finding self motivation.
‘He doesn’t like losing. You can see that with the last 18 months that he’s had, he’s got an incredible desire to keep fronting up tournament after tournament and trying to win them.
‘He’s an absolute credit to the game and his attitude is amazing really. I expect him to be fully up for it, the UK Championship. It’s a really good opening round draw.
‘I get along with Judd great so there’s no issues at all. When I won the Masters [2022] he was the first player that messaged me, a really nice message congratulating me on the win. He invited me out in London to party later on, but I’m a bit too old for that now.
‘There’s no issue between us at all. It’s two competitive players really wanting to win and I’ve got no problem with that.
‘You look at tennis, golf, all these other sports, players show emotion. Whenever [Rafa] Nadal and [Roger] Federer are on the court they want to kill each other out there, but when it’s done and dusted their relationship and camaraderie is really good. It’s exactly how myself and Judd are.’
Robertson did admit that he got a bit bogged down at times and was too slow in his win over Trump in Bolton.
It certainly wasn’t intentional and the Aussie has called for a ‘time management system’ to be used to kick players into gear when they are pondering on shots for too long.
‘I’m definitely not slower on purpose. It’s always a hindrance to anyone’s game,’ he said. ‘Maybe there’s one or two players who play slow on purpose, but me, definitely not.
‘Joe [Perry] gave me a bit of a grilling when I was on a blue in the last frame and I was trying too hard to get perfect on the next red and I took -like a minute-and-a-half over a shot. It’s crazy to spend that much time on a shot, it’s way too long.
‘That’s why I think it would help with a timer. Not a shot clock that beeps, but something you can see. If it went to 30 seconds and the ref told you it’s been 30 seconds then I’d have just dropped the blue in.
‘We need some sort of time management system that benefits the players, it’s not there as a punishment to make them play quicker. I’ve seen it with [Mark] Selby, I’ve even seen it with Judd before, taking four minutes on a shot because he couldn’t decide what to do. If you get a bit of a nudge, you go ok I’ll just play this shot.
‘I think something like that could be good for the game. I think the game’s slowed down a lot in the last few years, it’s doing Stephen Hendry’s head in in the punditry box, he doesn’t enjoy it.
‘I’d like to see something implemented to help the players. We’re all trying so hard to win, the prize money has never been higher, I think players are just trying to hard. Something like that would benefit the players and the game.’
Trump and Robertson meet at 1pm on Tuesday for a place in the last 16 of the UK Championship,
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