Judd Trump revels in finding form against Hossein Vafaei – ‘Top two or three performances this season’

Judd Trump revelled in his form against Hossein Vafaei at the World Grand Prix, declaring it one of the “top two or three performances I’ve played all season”.

Trump, talking beforehand, felt the tight turnaround was likely to see him struggle, but though he was subdued early on, he found his best cueing thereafter to qualify for the last 16 and a meeting with either Luca Brecel or Joe Perry.

Speaking to ITV Sport after his victory, Trump said: “I was straight back in at the deep end in this big event.

“I was quite pleased with how I played actually, I thought I was going to struggle a little bit to get up for it.

“For me I need the butterflies and I had that, I was still a little bit nervous, so I was really pleased about that and that helped me play well.

“It was a horrible draw to get him in the first round, he [Vafaei] is a really, really good player.

“I think it also helped how well he started off, I went 2-1 down and I thought I cannot miss here because I’m going to lose if I miss anything.

“Definitely it was top two or three performances I’ve played all season.

“I think when he looks back, he’ll be a little bit gutted because he didn’t play badly at all.

“I was thinking when I was 3-2 up, ‘even if I lost this game now, at least I’ve turned up and shown what I can do’, and in the end I made another good break in the last frame.”

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