World No 1 Trump eases to victory at Crucible
Judd Trump confirmed his status as world No 1 for the start of next season after sweeping into the second round of the World Snooker Championships in Sheffield, but believes it is only a matter of time before a new superstar emerges to re-write the record books.
Trump turned a 7-2 overnight advantage into a 10-4 triumph over qualifier Liam Highfield, guaranteeing that he will finish another campaign at the top of the rankings, and booking him a last-16 clash against former semi-finalist David Gilbert.
The 31-year-old praised the transformation under outgoing World Snooker Tour chairman Barry Hearn and said the onus was now on players to continue Hearn's work and help lift their sport to a new level of popularity.
Trump said: "Barry got us back on the straight and narrow and he's kind of told everyone to spread their wings and fly away now. It's up to us to do the job of making snooker bigger.”
If Trump himself has distanced himself from the notion that he could one day match Stephen Hendry's record of seven Crucible titles, he is convinced a new star will arrive to beat that mark - with only Ronnie O'sullivan's fiveminute maximum break in 1997, in his opinion, remaining untouchable.
"For me there's only one record that will never be broken and that's Ronnie's maximum time, and that's partly because the referees move a lot slower nowadays. But every other record will be broken. Hopefully in my lifetime, someone will come along and I can't wait to see that person.”