Judd Trump revealed that he “stopped breathing for five minutes” at the end of his Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters deciding-frame win over Mark Williams.
Trump’s Welsh opponent raced into a 62-0 lead at 9-9 with £500,000 on the line, before missing a red to the bottom-left pocket which allowed Trump the chance to clean up for a dramatic victory.
“It’s a pretty good turnaround from where I was, it’s so special to win when you’re not playing your best,” Trump said before being handed the trophy. “I think as I said before Mark was the better player, I just managed to… I stopped breathing for the last five minutes of that frame but I managed to get over the line.”
Trump was down 9-8 against the three-time champion but clawed his way back to a decider. After breaking off, the world No. 1 would have thought that he had played his last shot of the tournament, as Williams sank a long red and built up a big break.
But the 49-year-old clipped the jaw on what would have been the red before the matchwinning black ball, allowing Trump to return to the table, holding his nerve to clear the rest of the balls and walk away from the Middle East £500k richer.
“I am in shock,” Trump added. “I struggled, Mark was much the better player and it’s easy to say this now, a lot of people say it but his long potting I have never, ever seen anyone pot like that over that distance – every single shot went in.
“He was making breaks even though the table was playing tricky, I don’t deserve to win, he was the much better player I just found something at the end.”
After winning his third ranking title of the season already, putting him by far and away the highest-ranked snooker player in the world, Trump continued: “It’s special, it’s nice coming to these places and I am glad there is a packed crowd for the final, they got to see that.
“Every single player has enjoyed this week, the hospitality, everything. So I think it’s easy for me to say because I’m in the final but down the line if it keeps improving, this is going to be one of the really special tournaments.”
Trump was 4-0 down during his first match at the ‘fourth major’ to Wu Yize and revealed that he was on Skyscanner looking at flights home, only to rescue the match and end up winning the entire tournament.
And he had to go through an emotionally draining final few minutes to pinch the title and £500k from Williams, but can look back in the history books to see that he is the first-ever winner of the inaugural Saudi snooker showpiece.
