Snooker’s world number two gave a decent account of himself on his pool debut.
Judd Trump lost a dramatic encounter with Jason Theron by a narrow 11-10 margin to bow out of the 2021 US Open Pool Championship on Thursday in Atlantic City.
Earlier in the week, Trump had made it safely through his opening three rounds with a hat-trick of one-sided victories.
But when the 32 year-old finally came up against his first quality opponent in the fourth round, it proved to be an enormous step up in class.
Trump was hammered 11-1 by Scotland’s Jayson Shaw, a result that didn’t immediately knock the former world snooker champion out of the competition.
The prestigious US Open Pool Championship, which dates back to the mid-1970s, is played under a double-elimination format until the round of 16, so Trump had one more opportunity to manoeuvre his way through the bracket.
However, in what was his first losers’ round, the Englishman ultimately once again came unstuck against South African Theron and crashed out with a tough deciding-rack defeat.
With the ongoing lull in the snooker schedule, Trump decided to try his hand at a different cue sport discipline, and he certainly didn’t make a fool of himself as he followed in the footsteps of the likes Jimmy White, Steve, Davis, Tony Drago, and Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Trump, who claimed he was playing at about five per cent of the level he thinks he can reach, has not ruled out another attempt at making his mark in pool in the future.
Next up for the Ace in the Pack, however, will be a return to the snooker table when he competes in next month’s Northern Ireland Open – a ranking tournament he will be hoping to triumph in for a fourth year in succession.
While Trump was never considered among the fancied winners this week, he will be the betting favourite for glory in Belfast, and this Pointsbet promo code may help in finding good odds for the Bristol potter.
The US Open Pool Championship, meanwhile, will conclude on Saturday with $50,000 up for grabs for the winner.
Judd did give a pretty good account of himself in the 9 ball tourney. He actually could have won the decided but muffed an off the cushion shot to the top right hand corner, that he and I thought would drop for sure. He had an easy clearance if he’d made that one shot. He DID miss more balls than we thought he would, but he sure showed he has a marvelous stroke and if he dedicated some time to pool he’d be a real contender.