Judd Trump makes motivation admission as search for silverware goes on

Judd Trump’s trophyless run has reached the irritating point at which he will be asked constantly about it until it ends. But he suggests he is not quite as bothered as you might think.

It was less than a year ago that the 36-year-old won his second UK Championship, the 30th ranking title of his career.

Since then he’s been to Players Championship and Northern Ireland Open finals and a Crucible semi-final, he also still sits pretty at the top of the world rankings.

In the careers of most players this would be a period drenched in success and it is only by the standards of the elite that it can be considered a dry spell, but for the Ace that’s what it is.

2025 is threatening to be his first entirely arid year since 2013, which you might think is a cause for concern, but he suggests not.

Trump is playing at the Champion of Champions this week, having qualified for the event every year since it returned to the calendar in 2013. Asked if he is itching to lift a trophy again in Leicester on Sunday, his answer was something of a surprise.

‘I don’t think I’m quite as motivated as I was back then,’ Trump told ITV.

‘I’ve won a lot of tournaments since then and I still obviously turn up and try my best all the time but It’s not something that I really lose any sleep over. I’m not that kind of person.

‘I’ll keep going, there’s a few more tournaments left this year, if it doesn’t happen it’s just more motivation for next year.’

We’ve heard a number of reasons why Trump hasn’t been winning so much of late: he’s playing with a new cue, his brother has not been with him in Dubai to help him practice, dwindling confidence and stellar performances going in against him.

They’re all fair enough, but deteriorating motivation might be as important as any of them.

Trump’s been a relentless winner and those people are extremely driven and ruthlessly focussed. Has that razor sharp edge been blunted?

There were small signs of this at the World Championship where he was in sparkling form but was beaten in the semi-finals by Mark Williams.

No shame there, losing to a great performance from a legend, but he wasn’t quite as gutted as you might expect.

‘I’m not really disappointed, I tried my best,’ he told the BBC immediately after the 17-14 loss. ‘It wasn’t that far off. In the crucial moments, he potted them and I didn’t. He was too good for me over the three days.’

He added: ‘If my best is good enough, that’s amazing, if it’s not, I’ll go back again next year. There are no negatives, I tried my heart out and just ran out of steam.

‘I probably would have preferred to peak as the tournament went on, I probably started off too well. Any other player apart from Mark and I probably would have been in the final, so I think you just have to take your hat off to him, he was too good over the three days and I’ll try to improve for next year.’

This is no criticism of Trump because it was a very magnanimous and mature response to defeat, but it did feel different to the laser-focussed winner of recent years.

Asked if that was a deliberate change in attitude or simply down to getting older, Trump told Metro: ‘It was just because I couldn’t have tried any harder, I thought I was playing well. I felt like I was the best player up to that match and I was playing to a really, really good standard.

‘I was leaving Mark in awkward situations and he was just potting stupid balls and turning the frame around. I didn’t feel like I chucked it away.

‘I felt like Mark played unbelievably well. I’ve said it quite a few times, I think there’s Mark Williams, John [Higgins] in his prime and Ronnie [O’Sullivan] is just that little level above him. I don’t really feel like there’s anyone else that would have beat me the way I was playing. He was just very awkward to play.

‘I know if I’ve given it my all and played my absolute best and I couldn’t have done any more. Now, rather than get angry at myself over something that I couldn’t have done anything about, I just have to accept it and I think I’m better at that now. It’s still disappointing to lose but there wasn’t anything I could have done.’

It actually sounds like a great attitude, similar to that of Williams who famously responds to defeats with world class nonchalance.

He insists it is a positive, telling ITV: ‘I think I used to put too much pressure on myself and be so hungry and determined to win that it was backfiring. Now I’m a lot more relaxed, I feel like I don’t have a lot left to prove.’

If he was winning then it would be seen as a strength, but as an abnormally long barren run goes on, the shift in mindset could be viewed as a weakness.

Of course, this could all be moot by Sunday as Trump is already into the semi-finals of the Champion of Champions and could easily win two games to lift his first silverware of 2025.

‘I’m not as far away as maybe some people think, I’m pretty close,’ he said.

‘It’s taken some superb performances to beat me. One frame away against Jack [Lisowski in the Northern Ireland Open final]. Out there in China [Wu Yize at the International Championship] it took the eventual winner playing some of the best snooker of his life.

‘I’m not too disappointed with how I’ve played. As long as I keep putting the work in, there’s enough tournaments to eventually get one.’

That is true. Not one person on this planet thinks Judd Trump has already won his last tournament.

But with a growing string of factors – from paltry practice to cue qualms to outstanding opponents to quivering confidence and now to meandering motivation – there is a lot to overcome very quickly to end his drought before 2025 finishes as his most parched patch for over a decade.

Next up for Trump is a blockbuster Champion of Champions semi-final against world champion Zhao Xintong at 7pm on Friday November 14.

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