Judd Trump has gone from boy wonder to main man in snooker after German Masters triumph – Dave Hendon

A year ago, Judd Trump wasn’t even in Berlin. He hadn’t qualified for the German Masters and didn’t seem to be enjoying his snooker.

Snooker players will tell you how hard it is to win one tournament, how much mental energy and emotional investment you need to survive the ups and downs of a single week. So Trump, who between 2018 and 2021 won 14 ranking titles in three seasons, is once again doing something very special.

This remarkable talent has gone from boy wonder to one of snooker’s main men. His flamboyant shot-making is still very much in evidence but his safety game is now a much more important component of his overall armoury. He used it to great effect in a largely disjointed semi-final against Sam Craigie on Saturday night.

His scoring is also on point. Trump has already made 66 centuries this season, 28 more than next best. He has a realistic chance to become the first man to make 100 centuries in a campaign on more than one occasion.

This mix of attack and defence is a potent combination. Trump is not just a talented player but a clever one. He sees which moves to make and when. His cue ball can be loose at times but he is adept at pulling off tough recovery pots. His cue power is remarkable and he can have the white fizzing around the table at unlikely angles.

In many ways he’s a complete one-off, but his real skill has been in marshalling the various sides of his game to find the winning formula.

Clearly for Trump to be regarded alongside multiple world champions he has to actually be a multiple world champion, his sole success so far at the Crucible coming in 2019, but otherwise he has ticked every conceivable box several times.

The relentless pursuit of winning is what separates champions from merely players. Steve Davis had it. Stephen Hendry had it. Ronnie O’Sullivan, for all he likes to play it down, has it.

It’s the ability to come good not just now and again but consistently across a season, across a career, which marks out the truly great players.

One of Trump’s strengths is his lack of interest in ranking the importance of tournaments. If there’s a trophy to be won, he’s all in, regardless of how others see it. He covers his mantelpiece with silverware, not other people’s opinions.

He should take the weird jealousy he attracts from a minority as a compliment. People telling him he hasn’t achieved enough have little to celebrate themselves.

There are still some big titles to contend this snooker year, including the Players and Tour Championships and the new big money event in Riyadh, before attention turns to Sheffield and the World Championship in two months’ time, where Trump and O’Sullivan, the two players of the season, are currently set to meet in the semi-finals.

The Rocket is like that character in a film who simply cannot be killed off. He’s 48 but age has not wearied him. His aura and reputation are growing with each passing year.

So if they do meet in the last four at the beginning of May – and it’s a big “if” given the unpredictable nature of the game’s greatest tournament – it will provide an opportunity for Trump to prove he can bring his season-long form to the forefront when it really matters.

At the very least he seems likely to head into snooker’s ultimate challenge feeling much better about his game than last year, where he bowed out in the first round to Anthony McGill.

Trump’s victory in Berlin brought the curtain down on an enjoyable week of snooker. Extending the German Masters from five days to seven was a smart move, guaranteeing the audiences got to see more of the leading players in action, and indeed more matches full stop.

Si was a revelation, going one better than his agonising semi-final exit at the World Championship from 14-5 up to Luca Brecel. Some of his tactical shortcomings were exposed in the final but, at 21, time is on his side to improve that part of his game, just as Trump has.

Both finalists clearly revelled in the atmosphere. The crowds make this event. Their passion and enthusiasm for snooker seems to grow every year. There is no boorish behaviour, just a genuine delight in what they are watching. Trump described walking into the Tempodrom arena on semi-final Saturday as a “money can’t buy” experience, and this is from someone who has now pocketed just over £800,000 this season.

The German snooker public simply love the sport and their reward is to watch great players like Trump achieving yet more success. And there is surely more to come before the curtain falls on another season.