Judd Trump admits weakness despite UK Championship defence going well

Judd Trump is into the UK Championship quarter-finals but admits he is edgy and his ‘body wants to shut down’ when games go close.

It sounds like quite an extreme admission from the world number one, but it comes after a string of defeats in deciding frames this season.

After a 6-4 first round win over Stephen Maguire, Trump said: ‘I’ve lost every single decider I’ve played in. It’s draining my confidence completely when it gets close.’

He wasn’t exaggerating, having been beaten by Gary Wilson, Elliot Slessor, Shaun Murphy, Matthew Stevens, Jack Lisowski and Zhao Xintong in deciders this campaign.

The 36-year-old has not faced a deciding frame yet in York this time round, beating Si Jiahui 6-3 in the second round on Wednesday, but still felt a bit on edge when the score was 4-3.

The world number one is looking to win his first event since this tournament last year, which is also niggling at his confidence.

Asked how pleased he is to reach the last eight, Trump told the BBC: ‘Normally I wouldn’t be but I haven’t won a tournament for a year so it’s a bit of a different feeling. I’m a bit edgy, same in a lot of tournaments this year, just very edgy. I don’t quite have that belief at the moment.

‘At the start I was confident. After that, just because I’ve not been winning, rather than thinking, “oh that’s fine I’ll clear up next frame,” I’ve just been a little bit hesitant and looking for trouble a little bit.’

On how to get over the issue, he said: ‘It’s not so much winning a tournament, it’s winning close games.

‘At the moment, any time there’s a bit of danger my body wants to shut down.’

Trump is still not up to the peak of his powers but there were some fantastic signs in his win over Si, including a high break of 117 and a stunning clearance of 65 to win the fourth frame on the black.

After changing his cue at the start of the season he has returned to his old one, while he is also loving the playing conditions in York.

‘I feel good with that cue. I feel confident. The table’s playing lovely, it’s absolutely perfect,’ he said.

‘It makes the game good. They [pockets] are tight, but after the re-cloths, they are going in. The table is perfect. They’re a real test. When you miss balls, if you’re just a tiny bit off they don’t go in. That’s perfect.’

There has been much talk about size of pockets in recent seasons and Trump feels they are right to be more testing than some more generous conditions that have crept in elsewhere.

‘It’s not been done on purpose. The pockets haven’t been made bigger to make the players look good,’ Trump explained. ‘Just now and again there’s different table fitters around the world.

‘I’ve always found the pockets in the UK have always been good. It’s not like there’s been a point where every single ball is flying in.’

Trump is trying to avoid going a full calendar year without a tournament win for the first time since 2013, with this being his last chance to do so.

He is aware he is still not fully firing, but after recent finals at the Northern Ireland Open and Champion of Champions, he feels like he is getting close.

‘I don’t feel far off and to be honest,’ he said. ‘At the moment people look elsewhere and it just leaves me to float through the draw. There’s no expectation on me.

‘No one really knows what to expect, I don’t know what to expect. I’m quietly confident, it’s been progressing the right way in the last few tournaments, even though I’ve not been at my best, it’s still finals, semi-finals, things like that.

‘I think, if I can just sharpen up under the utmost pressure when things go wrong, I think that’s the only difference at the moment.’

Trump takes on either Ding Junhui or Scott Donaldson in the quarter-finals on Friday.

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