Judd Trump has praised Ronnie O’Sullivan after suffering a 6-3 first round defeat of the Players Championship to the snooker legend.
Trump claimed Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins are above anyone else in sports, admitting, “When he’s playing well, you have to do your best.
“I didn’t play too badly, I didn’t make many mistakes, he was just too good.”
But despite the humble response to Trump’s defeat, it goes without saying that the former world number one has enough talent.
His skills are on display here in a throwback to 2019, when Trump pulled off what has been dubbed the “shot of the season” – against none other than John Higgins himself.
Trump had trailed Higgins in the Northern Ireland Open semi-final 3-2, before miraculously going on a 4-0 run to claim a 6-3 victory over his rival and advance for the final.
Trump capitalized on a huge miss from Higgins, drawing the game 3-3 and giving the Bristolian hope.
From there, Trump took control of the match and won the final three frames to knock out Higgins, who at the time was ranked number one in the world.
The utter dominance in the final footage of the match was more than enough to put the Irish crowd on their feet with a standing ovation, but Trump only had more entertainment to offer his home crowd.
In the eighth frame, Trump extended his lead to 5-3 with an extraordinary shot, sinking black, and with the precise spin on white necessary for him to make a dramatic gap, before ricocheting off the cushions three times and to snuggle perfectly for the right of red.
👏 Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Mr Judd Trump…@judd147t #HomeNations #NIOpen pic.twitter.com/zm18GKXZSp
— Sporting Life Racing (@SportingLife) November 16, 2019
The shot left Higgins, now considerably down after leading the game earlier, speechless in amazement, only managing a slight nod of approval.
Meanwhile, commentators and the crowd erupted, calling it “the hit of the tournament”.
Judd Trump won the tournament in Belfast beating Ronnie O’Sullivan 9-7 in the final – the same scoreline by which he beat O’Sullivan in the previous year’s final.
So maybe Trump isn’t entirely truthful when he claims the two are in a league of their own.
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