Judd Trump has backed fellow snooker star Mark Allen in slamming conditions at the British Open.
The world No.1 will face Allen in the quarter-final of this year’s event in Cheltenham, but the pair have been left unhappy by the tournament organisers.
Allen blasted the playing conditions at The Centaur, labelling it ‘embarrassing’, before later calling for the tables to be ‘burned’.
The Northern Irishman did issue an apology shortly after, but his remarks have been backed up by Trump, who issued some similarly frank admissions.
Speaking to ITV Sport, the 2019 world champion claimed: “It’s tough, the conditions are not great so you’ve just got to win any way possible.
“It’s never going to be pretty it’s just about getting over the line and trying to stay as mentally strong as possible.
“It happened twice. I think the white came to a stop and then decided to move on its own. I don’t know what it is, I think there’s a lot more play on the tables than there used to be.”
He continued: “There’s five or six games a day on the table and it’s too much. It’s difficult because the spectators and everyone are expecting a good game and we want to give them a good game but the table is not really up for it.
“It’s horrible to play because you want to go out there and be able to play your best and when you’re not given the conditions to do that it’s disappointing for, not just me, but the fans watching.
“There’s just too much play on the tables nowadays, there’s too many games. In a lot of the tournaments there’s just two games a day and the tables play a lot better.”
Before adding: ”It’s disappointing not to be able to play my absolute best here, but I’m still in the tournament and hopefully at some point I can scrape through and find some form.”
Despite the pair’s frustrations, with a healthy £100,000 on offer to the winner, they’ll no doubt be giving it their all when they face off on Friday evening.
Elsewhere in the competition, Elliot Slessor has a tasty last-eight clash against John Higgins to look forward to, whereas David Gilbert will be the outsider when he takes on Mark Selby.
In the last of four quarter-final clashes, Jak Jones and Oliver Lines will compete against each other for a spot in the semis.
