Judd Trump relishing ‘chance to shut people up’ with Masters glory

Judd Trump is not sure he will ever silence his critics, but hopes he will ‘shut people up’ a bit by winning the Masters this weekend.

The world number one has looked brilliant at Alexandra Palace this week and has booked his spot in the semi-final after a 6-3 win over Ding Junhui on Friday afternoon.

After slipping to 3-1 behind thanks to a strong start from Ding, Trump exploded after the interval, making breaks of 97, 53, 125, 62 and 75 to win the match in style.

The 35-year-old came into the tournament as the favourite and has cemented that position thanks to his comfortable win over Barry Hawkins in round one and then cracking display against Ding.

Trump won the Saudi Arabia Masters earlier this season – landing £500,000 in the process – and then a fifth Triple Crown title in December at the UK Championship, as he enjoys a supreme campaign.

With one World Championship to his name so far, Trump is criticised for not landing enough of the sport’s biggest titles, but he hopes that noise will start to die down.

‘A lot of times people have said I don’t maybe win the big ones so it’s nice to go out there and have a season like this,’ he said. ‘I like winning any event, but I think it makes it even more special when you have the chance to shut people up at the same time.’

Asked whether he thinks criticism will really simmer down, he said: ‘No, because I think if I broke every record I’d have broke it too slow probably!

‘In my own head it doesn’t really bother me because I know the standard I’m playing, I’m so happy with how I’m playing.

‘It’s so nice to be involved at the latter stages every single time and always be in with a shot of winning these events.’

Trump has been in incredibly consistent form since the start of 2024, only failing to reach at least the quarter-final stage at one event, the International Championship, in over a year.

Asked whether this can be seen as a purple patch or just his standard now, he said: ‘I hope it’s just normal. To be honest I don’t really know. Obviously the longer it goes on I’d like to think I can keep this up forever, I don’t really know if it’s just confidence or what it is.

‘I think it’s gone on for a long enough time where you think maybe I’ve improved a bit from before. I’d love to keep this consistency up for the next 5 or 10 years, but I’d love to keep improving as well.

‘I don’t really know where my limit is at the moment. The last couple of tournaments, the game I played against Zhang Anda in the UK I played exceptionally well. The more you can keep doing that on the big stage in these big events, because it doesn’t happen very often, it’s very fulfilling.’

The 2019 World Championship remains Trump’s only Crucible triumph, and the amount of success he achieves on the rest of the calendar does leave people questioning why he hasn’t won more in Sheffield.

He insists it is not a worry for him, though, remaining consistent in the belief he has aired for years now that racking up multiple trophies, whichever trophies they may be, is what he wants to do.

‘I’d much rather be winning five or six events and the consistency I’m showing,’ he said. ‘To only win one event in a season would be demoralising after what I’ve done for four or five years. To go all season not winning, I hate that.

‘With Kyren, I just think it’s great to have someone younger coming though and having that self-belief. The past 5-10 years the Class of 92 have still dominated, but I think now it’s nice to have other players around me to push me to those next heights while some of the greats ease off a little bit and give some others a chance.

‘If I was to win this event and you ask me again it might be a different question when I get to the World Championship, but it’s so hard to keep your form for that long. I hope it can sustain till then.’