Player of the Month: July: Judd Trump

My player of the year countdown has reached the height of summer today, as I take a look back to the month of July where I decided that the stand out player of a quiet snookering month was the Ace in the Pack, Judd Trump. These are my thoughts on his July and why he is a good contender for player of the year:

July was a very quiet month of tour action, mainly as the snooker players were given a bit of time off for the summer, meaning the only event in July was the Australian Open. Judd was the stand out man of the tournament and eventual champion beating home favourite Neil Robertson convincingly in the final 9-6. To get to the final he overcame Rory McLeod, Alan McManus, Ricky Walden and Xiao Guodong, and he certainly looked to be back to his best form throughout the event, making him an incredibly dangerous prospect for the rest of the season (which he’s since proved).

Judd Trump 5-4 Ricky Walden – Ricky Walden had Judd in really deep trouble early on in this match as he led 3-0 with breaks of 104, 72 and 47 to put himself into a very commanding position. Judd has a much improved temperament these days though and he dug in superbly. A fabulous 110 kept him in the match going into the interval before he won a scrappy fifth to close to just a frame behind at 2-3 and that seemed to be the key frame as Judd kicked on in the next with an 86 to level the scores. Unfazed from watching his 3-0 advantage vanish, Walden went one ahead with two to play thanks to a contribution of 80. Ricky looked in a superb position to win the match as a break of 49 had him 45 points ahead in the eighth, but a counter break of 77 from the left  hander took the match into a deciding frame, where Judd only needed one chance with a run of 85 sealing a fantastic comeback victory.

Judd Trump 9-5 Neil Robertson – In the final, Judd was in for a tough match against home crowd favourite Neil Robertson and he’d have known that after all of the tough matches they’d had in the past, particularly their world quarter-final from just a couple of months previous where Robertson came back to make the semi-finals. As I say though, Judd has learned from these tough matches and tight defeats to become an improved player with a better temperament. The first six frames of the final were shared at 3-3 before Judd went on a superb run to win five frames on the trot either side of the session break, with contributions of 55, 114 and 101 helping him to within a frame of victory at 8-3. Breaks of 45 and 109 from Robertson kept the match alive at 5-8 and you had to wonder if a comeback was on, but Judd killed any thoughts of that in the fourteenth frame as a run of 51 helped him take the frame and the title, which was his first since the International Championship in November 2012 20 months ago.

When Judd is on top form he’s one of the best and most exciting players to watch in the game of snooker and he’s certainly turned things around since the beginning of the 2014/2015 season with brilliant performances in the European Tour events and in major events as he showed winning the Australian Open but also in making the Champion of Champions and UK Championship finals as he is a much improved player in all aspects of his game. You can tell from the results and the impact that it’s had on his game that Judd is now focussed on his snooker, and is working as hard now as he’s ever done in his career. If he continues that hard work, with the amount of talent he has, he will win big titles by the bucket full just as idol Ronnie O’Sullivan has in his career and it won’t be long before Mr Trump is a World Snooker Champion.

Judd is certainly one of my top contenders for player of the year, but who will be my next contender as I take a look back at the month of August tomorrow? Well you know where to look to find out.