Judd Trump has revealed that being written off by Stephen Hendry helped inspire him to another epic Masters victory. The Juddernaut is this year’s brinkmanship king at Alexandra Palace after edging past Barry Hawkins 6-5 on Friday to reach the semi-finals.
World number four Trump won his quarter-final with a second successive deciding-frame victory at the prestigious London invitation tournament.
Trump, 33, came back from the dead against Ryan Day in the first round when he ought to have been heading home. And the 2019 winner kept his bid for a second crown alive with a revenge win against last year’s finalist Hawkins, who beat him by the same score 12 months ago.
But ahead of the game six-time Masters winner and BBC pundit Hendry was in the arena tipping Hawkins as the favourite, and questioning Trump’s belief.
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Trump finished the contest with superb breaks of 107 and 81, and that after becoming the third player to tie the event high-break on 143.
He said: “I did hear the comments from Stephen, we were only getting there to go in. He is going on me not playing great in the first game. And up to 3-3 he was probably right today. But I always feel I have the next gear to go to whereas other players don’t have that. And a lot of that time little things like that do gee me up, I enjoy it.
“After a couple of years of being number one and winning lots, I do enjoy it when people write me off a bit.
“In both matches I have felt so bad and nervous at the start – but at the end I just seem to relax, get control of my hand and cue ball - and I felt my best in the last three or four frames. I don’t like playing with a tie either, I don’t think that helps with the nerves! I prefer wearing the T-shirts and polo shirts, and that’s why sometimes I wear the other type of bow tie.
“I wasn’t having the run of the balls – people say how lucky I am, but I seem cursed this season. I need to take some confidence from that win. And I am very excited to still be in. I have lost a lot of close games this season, so to win two in a row and with the breaks at the end today is important.
“It was different to the first match against Ryan Day in that I felt a lot more in control at the end in this one, like I knew I was going to clear up. Quite a few things had gone against me in the earlier frames and yet I was still able to get through, making some good breaks and a couple of centuries. I seemed to save my best until last. And I just had to hang in there at the beginning when I wasn’t playing so well. From 3-3 I felt a lot better, and that if he left me in I was going to make a good break. That is a nice feeling.
“But the atmosphere here is something special, if I was advising anyone I would tell them to come to the Masters for their first snooker experience – only the single table at the Crucible comes close. That reception we got before the final frame was one of the loudest that I have ever heard.”
Hawkins said: “It was another close one against Judd here at the Masters after last year, and he probably felt he was due one. And it is just a sickener at the moment.
“It was a struggle for both of us at times even though there were some big breaks. The match improved and got better though, and I’m sure the end made good viewing.
“I had a chance in the decider which is what you want, but I was stretching on the red and trying not to leave myself too tricky a black. But the reception before the decider made the hairs on your neck stand up, we don’t get that often, maybe never like that again.”
Trump will face another former Masters winner in Stuart Bingham on Saturday night, after the 2020 champion whitewashed Shaun Murphy 6-0 on Friday evening. World number 11 Murphy, 40, was simply blown away as the 46-year-old Bingham pounded him with breaks of 78, 128 and 107 to lead 4-0 at the mid-session interval.
And the world number 14 from Basildon, who restricted Murphy to 30 points in the last five frames, closed it out with a break of 65.
Bingham, whose season to date had been less than impressive, said: “I thought Shaun was lucky to get nil, the way I played! Before the game I was all nervous, but the first frame settled me and I went from strength to strength.”
Bingham and Trump have only met previously once at the Masters. That was 11 years ago, and it was the Juddernaut who won that contest 6-3.
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