Judd Trump plans big change if trophy drought continues much longer

Judd Trump will ditch his new cue and find another one if his trophy drought continues for another two weeks as his struggle to find top form goes on.

The Ace is still number one in the world but has not won a tournament since the 2024 UK Championship.

It has not been disastrous since then, losing in deciding frames in the Players Championship and Northern Ireland Open finals in 2025, while also reaching a World Championship semi-final.

However, he is clearly having doubts over the decision to change cues earlier this season, using a new piece of wood for the first time in seven years.

After beating Bai Yulu and Lei Peifan in his Champion of Champions group on Monday, he suggested that the cue he has had for the last two months may be retired by the end of November.

‘Not good,’ he told ITV4 of his performances. ‘I’m struggling a little bit with my cue, with the tip and the conditions weren’t great either. So not a good combination.

‘I’ve played a lot better this season and lost a lot of games so I suppose you have to be happy you’re still in the tournament and have a chance to rectify it.

‘I’m hitting the ball where I want to hit it and it just doesn’t go in at the moment. The tip’s very flat so the ball is throwing off a little bit. The cue is new, it’s only two months old. If I don’t win something this week or next week I think I’ll probably change it.’

He added: ‘If I don’t win the next two I’ll change. It will be a different one. I can’t go back to the old one now, I put it away for a reason.’

That means the cue has this week at the Champion of Champions and next week at the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship to save itself from the scrapheap.

If Trump fails to win either event and sticks to this plan he will be using a brand new cue again at the UK Championship, which would be a significant risk.

Speaking on his trophy drought, which is a lengthy one for a player who has won 30 ranking titles, Trump noted that his brother has not been able to practice with him in recent months, as he has done for a number of years.

He also suggested that pockets on the professional tour are too generous, meaning the best players have lost an advantage.

On Monday at the Champion of Champions in Leicester, Stephen Hendry described the pockets as ‘absolute bucketry’ after Lei potted a brown which hit the cushion a long distance before dropping in.

‘There’s quite a few factors,’ Trump said of his struggle for wins. ‘My brother’s not been able to come to Dubai because of visa problems for the last two months so my practice is probably the least I’ve practiced in the last six years. It’s very hard to practice with the same intensity.

‘Also I think the main thing is the pockets are so big at the moment I find it hard that the better player doesn’t always win on the big pockets.

‘A lot of people say the standard is so good, it’s all close, but when the pockets are tight and I thought they were in Ireland and – apart from the final when I lost 9-8 – I was the one that was finding the middle of the pocket and getting in.

‘Now you’re getting people that miss and it still goes in. It’s quite frustrating. And I think that’s why you’re seeing so many different winners because if someone’s playing half decent it’s like nine ball, you’re not going to miss.

‘Whoever gets in wins the frame, I think. It’s quite frustrating for some of the better players.’

There have been comments about pockets being too big at some events, notably at last week’s International Championship, where Neil Robertson said they were ‘very disappointing.’

Robertson told Radio Snooker with Nick Metcalfe after he played at the Nanjing event: ‘I think all the players would prefer them to be tighter.

‘Even when the balls are missed they still go in, so, very disappointing that we still had one of the events from China with such big pockets, but I think overall this season they’ve been very good. Around the UK they’ve been great, in China this season so far they’ve been very good, just this one was a bit of a slip.’

Trump seemed to be in agreement that pockets have largely been fine at the Xi’an Grand Prix in October, where he made a 147.

Asked why there have been so many maximums this season, with the total now standing at 14, Trump said last month: ‘I don’t feel like the pockets are that much bigger or anything is any different. I feel like the tables have been playing quite tough this season and quite heavy.

‘It’s a little bit surprising everyone has been making them. I think the standard of play has just improved. Everybody seems to want to make maximums now.’

World Snooker Tour told Radio Snooker in response to Robertson’s comments on the International Championship: ‘We are glad that Neil shares our view that overall the pockets have been very good this season.

‘Our dedicated team of table fitters work tirelessly in delivering the best possible conditions in very difficult circumstances.

‘We have been pushing players for feedback during events for the past two years and the more feedback we get the better. We have seen feedback lead to changes in conditions in events in China and we’ve made changes to the event in Germany that come straight from player feedback.’