Sporting Life
Neal Foulds will be penning a fortnightly column on Sporting Life
Neal Foulds will be penning a fortnightly column on Sporting Life

Neal Foulds snooker column: Eurosport and ITV pundit on Judd Trump's Turkish Masters victory

By Neal Foulds
Snooker
Wed March 16, 2022 · 3y ago

Neal Foulds suggests Judd Trump might be the man to beat at next month's World Snooker Championship – check out his latest column here.

The inaugural Turkish Masters was a huge success, with a very deserving winner in Judd Trump who has burst back to form in the last couple of weeks, making him very much the man to beat with the World Championship now fast on the horizon.

Great credit must go to Trump for turning his season around just at the right time. It wasn’t long ago that he appeared unlikely to qualify for the Tour Championship later this month, but he will firstly head to Gibraltar to defend his title there with no such concerns.

It’s amazing how quickly things can change in sport and having struggled for his best for a few months, Trump reached the final of the Welsh Open only a week ago and then backed that up by going one better in Antalya. He looked mentally drained following that Welsh Open defeat, so it says plenty about his durability and desire that he was able to dig deep and find something extra when he needed it most.

Turkey signals Trump's return to form

I do think that getting on a plane and getting away from the same venues we have been playing at in England over the last couple of years might have helped, and in that respect, it was nice to see an event being played away from England again. With the German and Turkish Masters this season, the schedule is starting to look like a proper tour once more.

I’m still not convinced that Trump was at his absolute best in Turkey, but it was another step forward from the Welsh Open and he looked particularly assured from close range. His long game wasn’t as good as we know it can be, but his appetite to keep winning is most impressive and he played really well in the final session of the final.

The 147 maximum break he made was the icing on the cake but I think the signs are there that Trump is peaking just at the right time. It’s certainly a good time of year to be hitting your straps and underlines the point that if you keep plugging away and working hard, like Trump has, things will come good at some stage in a long old season.

Players often talk about peaking for certain events, but with Trump, I think he just looks to win the next event in front of him and see where that takes him. He won the Gibraltar Open last year but hasn’t won the UK Championship since 2011. I’m sure he’d like to change that, but form is a funny thing that can come and go, and you can’t always maintain your sharpness with so much snooker being played.

Right now, with the confidence that win will give him, Trump is back to being the man to beat, with Masters hero Neil Robertson not too far behind. They are sure to dominate the betting for Sheffield, but as we know, there are no guarantees in sport.

Big prize up for grabs at Tour Championship

Before then, Trump and Robertson will have their eyes on a first prize of £150,000 at the Tour Championship. This event has quickly become one of the most coveted in snooker, and certainly not just because of its proximity on the calendar to Sheffield.

This is a massive tournament in its own right and just qualifying for it, as a result of finishing in the top eight on the 1 Year Ranking list, confirms you to have enjoyed a strong campaign. Ultimately, the qualification process rewards winners, and that why’s the likes of Zhao Xintong, Mark Williams and Ronnie O’Sullivan will join Trump and Robertson in a select field.

I’m really looking forward to it, though I can’t stress enough just how much I enjoyed seeing the game embraced by fans in Turkey last week, fans we probably didn’t even know existed in that part of the world.

I have to say that Eurosport’s coverage of snooker over the last few years has played a huge part in this, taking the sport to a wider audience who will hopefully stay with it for many years to come. I’m just a small part of the team at Eurosport, but it’s my pleasure to be able broadcast snooker events staged all around the world – and hopefully we will return to China in the very near future.

In the meantime, I’m planning to put my feet up after a busy few weeks and enjoy the Cheltenham Festival. Many of you will know I'm a big racing fan and Cheltenham is always one of my favourite weeks of the year. Good luck if you’re trying to find a winner or two in the coming days!

Cheltenham Festival 2022 | Day One Best Bets

More from Neal Foulds