O’Sullivan and Trump in a brave new world

THE burgeoning rivalry between snooker’s top two resumes this weekend. Only the circumstances could not be more different to the last time they shared a table. When Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump met in May, they were wearing waistcoats in a best-of35 world championship final at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre. This weekend, they will be in polo shirts for a four-frame roundrobin fixture at Milton Keynes’ Marshall Arena. Oh, and they will be playing alongside a female partner. For the first time since 1991 — when Trump was only 18 months old — snooker is staging a major mixed doubles event, with the world’s best four men and women all in action. O’Sullivan will play with women’s No 1 Reanne Evans, while Trump has been paired with Ng On-yee, who recently beat 1997 world champion Ken Doherty. The other teams see Mark Selby partnered by Rebecca Kenna and Neil Robertson alongside women’s world champion Mink Nutcharut. And Trump has his sights set on emulating Steve Davis, who triumphed with Allison Fisher in snooker’s only other tournament of this kind at the world Masters 31 years ago. ‘Being a new event, everyone wants to be the first pair to win it,’ said Trump. ‘It’s such a big opportunity for all of us to showcase what we can do. ‘There is going to be a bit of extra pressure because you don’t want to let your partner down, but I’m sure the best players can thrive off that. It’s going to be pretty fun. ‘We definitely need to change a few things and still need to modernise it with clothing, tournaments and how the players are perceived. If women are seen playing on TV and it looks cool, it will hopefully inspire a future generation. ‘There is still a long way to go but this is a good step forward.’