I left it too late to start the fightback, admits Trump
JUDD Trump admitted that a poor opening day of the World Championship final left him with too much to do on Monday as Ronnie O’Sullivan closed out an 18-13 victory to claim a recordequaling seventh Crucible title.
The Bristol potter produced a fine comeback from 12-5 down after the first two sessions to trail just 14-11 going into Monday’s night’s finale, but the Rocket gained the upper hand once more to wrap things up.
Trump paid tribute to O’Sullivan, whom he predicted could go on to surpass the seven-title record he now shares with Stephen Hendry.
“I tried my best to get back into it, but I left it a little bit too late,” said Trump. “I gave it my all and I knew it was going to be tough, but I didn’t get the start I needed.
“I’m just proud of how I managed to get through a couple of tough battles not being at my best. From looking like it was going to be a disappointing tournament, I turned it into a bit of a positive one.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if he (O’Sullivan) goes out and beats the record now. The level he’s played, apart from Mark Williams, he was different class to everyone here and it only ever looked like there was going to be one winner.”
O’Sullivan shared a lingering embrace lasting more than a minute with Trump after getting over the line with a break of 83, before also greeting his children who ran into the arena to share his moment.
“I didn’t feel like the favourite to win,” insisted O’Sullivan. “I doubted myself a little bit, so to finally get a result like I did is special.
“I’ve grown up with Judd, we’ve shared a lot of time on the practice tables, so to hear the words he said to me afterwards, I didn’t realise what that meant to him. It was nice to hear I was part of his development and it was a special moment – he choked me up.”
With victory, the 46-year-old matched Hendry’s modern day record, collected a £500,000 winner’s cheque, and surpassed Ray Reardon to become the oldest-ever world champion.
Yet victory was far from a formality for O’Sullivan. Despite sailing into the final day with a 12-5 advantage, some question marks lingered after a tempestuous opening session on Sunday, in which he appeared irritated and clashed with referee Olivier Marteel.
World Snooker Tour officials have confirmed they will take no further action after Marteel issued O’Sullivan a formal warning for a lewd gesture in the eighth frame, which O’Sullivan denied, doubling down on his affront in a subsequent television interview.
The incident marred recognition of a ruthless first day performance by O’Sullivan, who punished a series of misses by Trump to win a streak of seven frames out of nine, and raised the prospect of becoming only the fourth player to beat his final opponent with a session to spare.
Trump had other ideas, and gradually ensured that attention turned to whether the 32-year-old could mount what would have been the biggest final comeback since Dennis Taylor’s recovery from eight frames down to sink Steve Davis in 1985.
The Bristolian won the first three frames of the day and, although a sluggish O’Sullivan stopped the rot, he still looked far from comfortable, producing the pivotal error in the next frame when he fired a red well wide as Trump loomed up at 13-9.
A nerve-jangling clearance from Trump, in response to O’Sullivan leaving a black dangling over the top pocket, made it 13-10, and the pair shared the last two frames of an engrossing afternoon to leave Trump with a glimmer of hope having cut the overnight lead by more than half.
But before a packed and suitably raucous Crucible crowd, O’Sullivan eased the pressure by taking the first two frames in the evening with breaks of 82 and 88, each time after errors by Trump determined that his hopes of completing the fightback lay in going for broke.
Trump would win two of the next three, and ensured another bit of history by delivering a recordbreaking 109th ton of the tournament – fittingly, with a clearance of 109 – to close the gap to 17-13 before O’Sullivan got over the line.