How Judd Trump produced arguably snooker’s greatest shot at German Masters – ‘It was once in a lifetime’

Judd Trump described it as the greatest shot of his career and you will struggle to find a better one in the modern televised history of snooker.

On Saturday 30 January 2021, the 2019 world champion executed a pot on the green from distance at the German Masters that still manages to bewilder green baize fans across the globe two years on.

Losing 5-1 to Barry Hawkins in the semi-finals, Trump walloped the object ball into its pocket with exaggerated topspin and watched the white miraculously come to a halt via the baulk cushion as if under some sort of sorcerer’s spell to land perfectly on the brown.

Due to the pandemic, the tournament was staged behind closed doors in Milton Keynes rather than its spiritual home in Berlin’s teeming Tempodrom, but at least the Eurosport cameras were on hand to capture a unique slice of snooker folklore.

At the time of writing, Trump’s torpedo has garnered 1.8m views on Twitter alone.

“The shots against Ding (Junhui in the quarter-finals a day earlier) and John Higgins (2019 Northern Ireland Open semi-final) were amazing, but that shot really is once in a lifetime, to stop the white like I did.

“You are kind of hoping that will happen, but you don’t truly believe it, but when I hit it, Barry has cracked up. Even shots like that, give me the belief when I sit down. I could have just rolled the green and missed it.

“The belief that gives you, I truly believed I could win the game at 5-2 down from that one shot.”

The 13th German Masters begins LIVE on Eurosport and discovery+ from Berlin on Wednesday with Lisowski and Neil Robertson among the leading contenders for the £80,000 first prize on Sunday evening.

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Stream the 2023 German Masters and more top snooker action live and on-demand on discovery+ and eurosport.co.uk