Best snooker shot? Judd Trump's puppeteer masterpiece from 2019 NI Open
Judd Trump has praised Ronnie O’Sullivan after suffering a 6-3 defeat in the first round of the players championship to the snooker legend.
Trump claimed that Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins are levels above anyone else in the sport, admitting “When he plays well, you have to play your absolute best.
“I didn’t really play too badly, I didn’t make that many mistakes, he was just too good.”
But despite the humble response to defeat from Trump, it goes without saying that the former world number one has plenty enough talent of his own.
His skills are displayed 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 been trailing Higgins in the semi-final of the Northern Ireland Open 3-2, before miraculously going on a 4-0 streak to take the win 6-3 over his rival and advance to the final.
Trump capitalised on a huge miss from Higgins, drawing the two level at 3-3 and giving hope to the Bristolian.
From here on, Trump took control of the match, and won the final three frames to knockout Higgins, who at the time was ranked number one in the world.
The utter domination in the final frames of the match was more than enough to bring the Irish crowd to their feet with a standing ovation, but Trump only had more entertainment to offer his audience.
In the eighth frame, Trump extended his lead to 5-3 with an extraordinary shot, sinking the black, and with the precise spin on the white needed for it to swerve dramatically, before ricocheting three times off the cushions, and nestling itself perfectly to the right of the 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 down considerably having earlier led the match, speechless with amazement, managing only a slight nod of approval.
Meanwhile, the commentators and crowd erupted, labelling it the ‘shot of the tournament’.
Judd Trump went on to win the tournament in Belfast as he defeated Ronnie O’Sullivan 9-7 in the final – the same score line by which he had defeated O’Sullivan in the previous year’s final.
So perhaps Trump is not being entirely truthful when he claims the two are in a league of their own.