Judd Trump's golden snooker career will be judged on World Championship crowns as he chases Ronnie O’Sullivan
By Desmond Kane
Updated 09/12/2024 at 09:18 GMT
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World No. 1 Judd Trump has laid out a fresh road map for the rest of the season after increasing his lead at the top of the rankings with his 10-8 victory over Barry Hawkins in the UK Championship final. The 30-time ranking event winner intends to reduce his playing schedule in order to peak for the World Championship, but can he become only the 10th man in Crucible history to win multiple titles?
'Another one for the collection' - Trump gets his hands on second UK Championship trophy
Video credit: TNT Sports
The modern era of professional snooker provides players with a pathway to prosperity via a record number of ranking events, but the road to greatness will only ever run through Sheffield.
Or perhaps Riyadh and Shanghai in future years if the World Championship is transported outside the UK for the first time when the Crucible contract ends in 2027 – the 50th anniversary of the competition first being held in the Steel City.
Wherever the tournament is staged now or in future years, its steel-capped standing as snooker’s greatest show on earth will never be disturbed.
It appears this has not been lost on the runaway world No. 1 Judd Trump, who has announced plans to reduce his playing schedule for the rest of the season in order to peak in time for the ultimate event (April 19-5 May, live on Eurosport and discovery+).
It is a bold plan, but one that could yet provide both wisdom and wealth for a figure whose voracious appetite for winning sees him lead the end-of-season rankings by an astonishing 741,700 points.
Trump lifted a 30th ranking trophy at the UK Championship last weekend to move within one title of John Higgins (31) on the all-time list, with Ronnie O’Sullivan (41) and Stephen Hendry (36) both within potting distance up ahead.
The bounding Bristolian – who has picked up an astonishing £1,170,200 this season alone – is also third on the all-time prize money list, having amassed a staggering £8.86m after turning professional in 2005 with only O'Sullivan (£14.55m) and (Higgins £10.03m) earning more since 1992.
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Trump keeps break alive with brilliant plant against Wilson
Video credit: TNT Sports
'Massive natural talents'
Yet all the money and titles in the world will alter little in the wider landscape if Trump ends his career with only one World Championship to his name.
Becoming a multiple world champion means more than being a serial winner of prize money, carrying much greater significance than stockpiling cash.
Every elite tournament in snooker is similar in style and length when you compare the Masters to the Shanghai Masters, or the UK Championship to the Tour Championship or Champion of Champions.
What we do know is the World Championship towers above the rest in terms of length of matches, prestige and widespread recognition beyond the confines of a darkened room.
In snooker, it has provided the platform for massive natural talents such as Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins, Jimmy 'Whirlwind' White and Ronnie O'Sullivan to transcend the sport that made them.
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‘What have you had for breakfast?’ - White dazzles with potting exhibition
Video credit: TNT Sports
It has also given Trump a stage to achieve a ground-breaking run of consistency in the most demanding of all cue sports, with the edge being taken off his unrestrained "naughty snooker" to provide an all-round attacking threat.
He is well on course to end his career as the most prolific ranking event winner in history, the richest prize money winner in history and could also wind up topping the sport’s all-time century list, with O'Sullivan on 1277 at the latest count and Trump in second spot on 1,026.
O'Sullivan has won eight UK and eight Masters, six more than Trump has collected, but his World Championship record will ultimately be crucial in how history judges a remarkable potter dubbed 'The Ace in the Pack'.
That might sound like a harsh metric in measuring true value, but all the greats of the game from previous generations have had to deal with the unique challenge which this presents.
The annual stress test and pressure of producing mighty match-play winning snooker when it matters most on the sport’s greatest stage over 17 days has proved too much of a burden for several of the sport's leading men.
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Trump is the epitome of modern snooker, says Foulds
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'Beat the records'
White lifted the Masters in 1984 and UK Championship in 1992, but who truly celebrates those victories beyond the bubble?
He continues to be loved and adored by the British public for being the sport’s greatest nearly man in finishing runner-up six times in a world final, four times to Stephen Hendry.
Until O’Sullivan equalled Hendry’s haul of seven world titles in 2022, there even remained some debate about his status as the snooker GOAT.
"Ronnie is the best player to ever pick up a cue," said Stuart Bingham, the 2015 world champion, in 2016. "But to be the greatest player, you have to beat the records.
"Hendry was a born winner. He only loved winning, and he was more ruthless than anyone. Ronnie is the most talented and the best in the world, but to be the greatest ever you need titles."
Bingham only revised his viewpoint after his fellow Essex professional equalled Hendry’s haul with an 18-13 win over Trump two years ago.
While carting off trophies is no mean feat in such a cut-throat era, there also needs to be an appreciation of the rapid increase in ranking events – 18 this season compared to a pre-pandemic 20 in 2019 – which has enabled the new generation to flourish in terms of tournaments and enhanced earning potential.
The explosion of tournaments on the calendar has afforded aspiring professionals countless opportunities to add to their haul of trophies, but it has not always been the case.
When Steve Davis was claiming six world titles in the 1980s, there were never more than 10 ranking events with non-ranking and invitational tournaments providing the backbone of the sport's formative years on TV.
When O’Sullivan lifted the third of his seven Crucible titles in 2008, it was bang in the middle of a period in time when snooker, starved of sponsorship after the ban on tobacco advertising in sport, was almost a part-time profession with a meagre seven ranking events - a pallid increase of one from only six in 2006.
'A long way to go'
Trump is the complete player, but records are key to completing his body of work. Where is he likely to finish on the all-time list of world champions?
His minimum target must surely be to end his career as a multiple world champion. Time is not his enemy in this respect.
"If I am up there at the end of my career with the all-time greats, then brilliant, but I am just going to try and keep knocking out the ranking events and see where I can get to," he told Eurosport.
"It is still a long way to go from where I want to be in my career."
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Trump insists time is on his side in ominous warning to snooker rivals
Video credit: TNT Sports
He lifted his solitary world title in 2019 with a swashbuckling 18-9 win over John Higgins, a final that produced a record 11 centuries, but success has not been easy to find before or after that landmark moment.
Can he catch O’Sullivan and Hendry on seven? At the age of 35, it is far from impossible, but it also appears to be an almighty ask when you study recent history and what can be achieved if you have only lifted one world crown in the first 19 years of a career.
O’Sullivan has so far won four of his seven beyond the age of 35, while Higgins claimed the fourth and so far final world title of his career with his 18-15 victory over Trump at the same age in 2011.
Mark Selby celebrated the last of his four at the age of 37 with an 18-15 win over Shaun Murphy in 2021.
In comparison, Hendry and Davis both peaked dramatically early.
Hendry carried off all of his seven world titles between 1990 and 1999 with his 18-11 final victory against Mark Williams coming at the age of 30.
Davis was 31 when he flogged John Parrott 18-3 in 1989 for his sixth and final success.
Williams remains a magnificent outlier in recent times, having secured his second and third world title a remarkable 15 years apart, his latest trophy lift achieved in 2018 at the age of 43 after an epic 18-16 win over Higgins.
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'Exclusive club'
As it stands, Trump will also have to contend with a formidable field in forthcoming years that continues to contain clear and present dangers in O'Sullivan, Selby, Williams and Higgins.
Men like Kyren Wilson, Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy also have realistic ambitions to double up on their solitary victories amid a growing array of Chinese hopefuls with Zhao Xintong, Si Jiahui, Zhang Anda and Xiao Guodong all jostling to become their country's first world champion.
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Watch huge ovation for O'Sullivan as he enters arena ahead of Ding clash at Masters
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Elsewhere, Ding Junhui and Mark Allen are probably the greatest two players to never lift the world title, but both have the ability to conquer the Crucible.
"I've won the UK Championship and the Masters, two other majors, but you turn pro to win the worlds," said Allen in 2024.
"I'll see it as disappointing if I don't win a world title. More than anything, that's what I want to do.
"You dream as a young kid starting out to be world champion, having that final black to win a world title."
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'My goodness’ – Allen pulls off incredible snooker in gripping decider as clock ticks past midnight
Video credit: TNT Sports
Perhaps a move away from Sheffield would benefit Trump, who seems to flourish as much outwith the UK with the playing conditions and temperatures more conducive to his unfettered ball-striking ability.
Beyond the competitive origins of brothers Joe and Fred Davis sharing 23 world titles between 1927 and 1956, only nine men have lifted the world title more than once in the history of the Crucible: O'Sullivan, Hendry, Davis, Ray Reardon, Selby, Higgins, Williams, John Spencer and Alex Higgins.
It is an exclusive club Trump would be keen to join as invites do not last forever.
While time is on his side, time does not come with any guarantees.
The challenge for Trump is making up for lost time at a tournament that continues to define who is the greatest of all time.
Multiple Crucible winners
- Ronnie O'Sullivan (Eng) 7
- Stephen Hendry (Sco) 7
- Steve Davis (Eng) 6
- Ray Reardon (Wal) 6
- Mark Selby (Eng) 4
- John Higgins (Sco) 4
- Mark Williams (Wal) 3
- Alex Higgins (NI) 2
- John Spencer (Eng) 2
Watch and stream top snooker action, including the Shoot Out, live and on demand on Eurosport and discovery+
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