Judd Trump is putting pressure on himself to land another big title, saying he wants to take advantage of a period when he feels that he’s playing well.
The Englishman triumphed at the Shanghai Masters at the start of August but has suffered a series of unexpected defeats in ranking events since then.
At this week’s English Open, Trump got his campaign at the Brentwood Centre off to a positive start on Tuesday with a resounding 4-0 defeat of Jordan Brown.
“Any time you can win as comfortably as possible is good,” Trump told the World Snooker Tour. “You want to be saving as much energy as possible.”
“It has been a very busy period. There has been a tournament pretty much every week for a month and a half.
“You want to be trying to conserve as much energy as possible for the rest of the tournament. In the first couple of rounds, you want to breeze through.”
Trump beat old rival Kyren Wilson to secure the silverware in Shanghai, but as an invitational event it boasted no ranking points.
Soon after, the 37 year-old surrendered his long-held world number one position to Zhao Xintong.
Despite good displays in the recent ranking events, Trump exited the quarter-finals of the China Open to eventual runner-up Noppon Saengkham before bowing out of both the Wuhan Open and the British Open to champions Chang Bingyu and Jak Jones.
“It’s a difficult sport to play, because nine times out of ten you’re going to go home unhappy. You have to kind of understand that as well,” Trump continued.
“Throughout the season, if you can get one or two wins it’s a good season. There are a lot more lows than there are highs in snooker. It’s difficult.”
“I think I’ve got better at managing that, but a lot of the time I’m not at my best whereas this season I’ve felt pretty good, so it hurts a little bit more when you do lose.
“It’s just about managing expectations really. I’ve already won once, but because it wasn’t a ranking event it feels a little bit different.
“So even though I’ve not played badly and I’ve either lost to a winner or a runner-up, it’s still disappointing.”
The English Open, which Trump has won twice in his career, continues on Wednesday with the round of 32.
The 2019 world champion will look to extend his stay in the event when he takes on Ashley Carty, with several other marquee names also still involved.
The tie of the round is undoubtedly the contest between former Crucible king Wilson and rising Chinese star Chang.
Elsewhere, Mark Williams and Ding Junhui entertain Matthew Selt and Ashley Hugill respectively.
Mark Selby, who recovered from his defeat to Jones in the British Open final on Sunday by edging Ricky Walden in the first round here, plays Zhang Anda.
Shaun Murphy is another high-profile contender with the Magician up next against Jamie Clarke, while world champion Wu Yize clashes with Xu Si.
Other top 16 members still in the hunt for the £100,000 top prize and the season’s first Home Nations Series title include Barry Hawkins and Chris Wakelin.
Wakelin meets last year’s runner-up Zhou Yuelong with Hawkins in action against Daniel Wells.
Oliver Lines, who upset pre-tournament favourite Zhao in the last 64, takes on Yuan Sijun while Neil Robertson’s conqueror Luo Zetao meets Gong Chenzhi.
The full and updated draw is available on the WST website.
Featured photo credit: WST
