Judd Trump (born 20 August 1989) is an English professional snooker player who is a former world champion and a former world number one. He is in fourth place on the list of all-time ranking event winners, having won 31 ranking titles. He has won five Triple Crown events.
Trump turned professional in 2005, having reached the World Under-21 Championship semi-finals at age 14 the previous year. In 2011, after winning his maiden ranking title at the China Open, he was runner-up at the World Championship and captured his first Triple Crown title at the UK Championship. He finished runner-up at the 2014 UK Championship and completed his career Triple Crown in the 2018–19 season by winning both the Masters and the World Championship. In doing so, he became the first player to win over £1 million in prize money in a single season. He won six ranking events in the 2019–20 season, setting a new record for the most ranking titles earned in one season.
At the 2024 British Open, Trump made his 1,000th century break in professional competition, becoming the third player to reach this milestone, after Ronnie O'Sullivan and John Higgins. During the 2024–25 season, he won a total of £1,680,600 in prize money, setting a new record for the highest prize income in a single season. Known for his attacking style of play and skills, he holds the record for the most century breaks achieved in one season, having made 107 in 2024–25, and has made nine maximum breaks in his career. He was inducted into the World Snooker Tour Hall of Fame in 2021 and has been awarded World Snooker's Player of the Year on four occasions. He was awarded an MBE in 2022 for services to snooker.
Life and career Early life and amateur career Judd Trump was born on 20 August 1989 in Whitchurch, Bristol. He was introduced to snooker by his father, a long-distance lorry driver, who bought him a mini snooker table as a young child. Trump played his first competitive match aged six, when he needed to stand on a box to reach the table. As a child, Trump practised at Keynsham snooker club. He idolised Ronnie O'Sullivan and said in 2012: "I have wanted to be the next Ronnie O'Sullivan since I was eight." He attended Whitchurch School in Bristol, and he was the English Under-13 and Under-15 snooker champion (he won the latter at age 10). He became the youngest-ever winner of the Pontins Open in 2003 when he defeated Mike Hallett in the final. In 2004, he broke O'Sullivan's record as the youngest-ever player to score a competitive maximum break of 147, achieving the feat aged 14 years 208 days, and he reached the World Under-21 Championship semi-finals.
2005–2010 Trump was awarded a wild card place on the professional snooker tour for the 2005–06 season, and at the Welsh Open he became the youngest-ever player to qualify for the final stages of a ranking event. He defeated James Wattana 10–5 in the final round of qualifying at the 2007 World Championship, only the third 17-year-old player to have qualified for the main stage of the tournament, after Stephen Hendry and O'Sullivan. He played Shaun Murphy in the first round but lost 6–10 having led 6–5.
In the 2007–08 season, Trump reached the second round of the Welsh Open, where he lost 3–5 to O'Sullivan. He failed to qualify for the 2008 World Championship after a 9–10 loss to Joe Swail in the final round of qualifying, having led 9–7. At the 2008 Grand Prix, Trump reached his first ranking event quarter-final, defeating Joe Perry in the last 16. He then beat O'Sullivan 5–4 to reach the semi-finals, where he was defeated 4–6 by John Higgins. Trump won a Masters Qualifying Event in 2008 to gain entry into the 2009 Masters as the only qualifier, but he was defeated by Mark Allen in the first round. He won the 2009 Championship League, earning a place at the following season's Premier League Snooker tournament. Trump failed to reach the main stage of the 2009 World Championship, losing 8–10 to Stephen Lee in the final qualifying round, but he ended the season in the top 32 of the world rankings for the first time.
Trump did not progress beyond the last 32 in any ranking tournaments in the 2009–10 snooker season. At the non-ranking Premier League, he won four of his six matches to finish second in the league table, before losing 1–5 to O'Sullivan in the semi-finals. In 2009, Trump met Django Fung, a snooker manager and co-owner of the Grove Leisure snooker academy in Romford. Trump relocated to Romford and joined the Grove academy in January 2010. In August that year, he triumphed at the Paul Hunter Classic in Germany. Following victories over Jack Lisowski in the quarter-finals, and Murphy in the last four, he defeated Anthony Hamilton 4–3 in the final.
2011–2014 Trump defeated Marco Fu, Peter Ebdon and Murphy at the 2011 China Open to reach his first ranking event final, in which he triumphed over Mark Selby 10–8. During the tournament, Trump made his 100th competitive century break. At the 2011 World Championship, Trump was drawn against reigning champion Neil Robertson in the first round, with Trump winning 10–8. In subsequent rounds, he knocked out Martin Gould 13–6, Graeme Dott 13–5 and Ding Junhui 17–15 to qualify for his first World Championship final, which he lost 15–18 to Higgins. Trump had led 10–7 at the conclusion of the first day but lost six of the first eight the following day to fall behind. Afterwards, Higgins said he thought that Trump had been the better player in the match and had deserved to win.
Trump suffered a loss to Mark Davis in the first round of the 2011 Australian Goldfields Open, before winning a Players Tour Championship (PTC) event by beating Ding 4–0 in the final. He finished runner-up to Robertson in the eighth PTC event of the season, before capturing the ninth, overcoming O'Sullivan 4–3 in the final. He later topped the PTC Order of Merit. At the 2012 PTC Finals, he exited in the second round after a defeat to Xiao Guodong.
Trump was victorious at the 2011 UK Championship at the Barbican Centre in York. He defeated Dominic Dale 6–4 in the last-32, before winning the final two frames of his second-round match to edge out O'Sullivan 6–5. Afterwards, Trump said that he had been "outplayed" and was "lucky" to have got through. He then overcame Stephen Maguire 6–3, and faced Robertson in the semi-finals. Trump stated afterwards that he believed Robertson had tried to stifle his natural game by slowing him down and "making things awkward", but the Bristolian triumphed 9–7 to reach his first UK final. There, he played Allen, and trailed 1–3, before producing a match-defining run of seven straight frames to take an 8–3 lead. Allen fought back, winning five of the next six frames to trail just 8–9, before Trump clinched the 18th frame with a break of 91, and won the match 10–8. His victory took him to number five in the world rankings. Six-time winner of the event Steve Davis said that Trump's performances during the championship had shown that he was "spearheading his generation" of snooker players.
Trump reached the semi-finals of the 2012 Masters after defeating O'Sullivan in the quarter-finals. He met Robertson in the semi-finals for the second successive major event, and it was Robertson who triumphed 6–3. He reached the final of the Championship League but lost 1–3 to Ding. At the 2012 World Championship, he defeated Dale in their first-round match 10–7, while suffering from the effects of food poisoning. He was knocked out in the second round by Ali Carter 12–13.
Trump's first tournament of the 2012–13 season was the Wuxi Classic in China, where he lost to Robert Milkins in the second round. In the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters, he defeated Williams to reach the final against Higgins. Trump took a 5–0 lead, Higgins responded with a 147 maximum break, before Trump claimed a 7–2 advantage after the first . Upon the resumption of play, Higgins won six frames in a row, with the match eventually going into a , which Higgins secured to claim a 10–9 victory. Trump won his third ranking event at the International Championship. In the quarter-finals he eliminated Allen, before defeating Ebdon 9–1 in the semi-finals to become snooker's tenth world number one. He recovered from 6–8 down in the final against Robertson to triumph 10–8.
Trump met Higgins in two Players Tour Championship finals, losing the Kay Suzanne Memorial Trophy 2–4, but triumphing in the second, the Bulgarian Open, by whitewashing Higgins 4–0. He also reached the final of the 2012 Premier League after beating Robertson in the semi-finals, but lost 2–7 to Stuart Bingham. In the defence of his UK Championship title, Trump played Mark Joyce in the first round. After leading 5–2, Trump lost the last four frames of the match to exit the tournament. He also lost his position at the top of the world rankings. He exited early at both the Masters and the German Masters, but regained the world number one ranking at the Welsh Open, coming back from 1–3 down to beat Dale 4–3 in the first round, after which Trump stated that "players are changing their game to play slower against me." He progressed to the semi-finals, in which Maguire defeated him 6–4.
At the 2013 World Open, Trump played Matthew Stevens in the quarter-finals and lost 3–5. He qualified for the PTC Finals by finishing second on the Order of Merit, but lost to Alfie Burden in the first round. He also lost in the first round of the China Open to Lisowski, relinquishing the world number one ranking to Mark Selby. At the 2013 World Championship, he beat Dale in the first round 10–5. At 8–7 ahead in the last 16 against Fu, Trump won five consecutive frames to triumph 13–7 and set up a quarter-final clash with Murphy. Trump came from 3–8 down to level at 8–8 at the conclusion of the second session. The deciding frame of the match lasted 53 minutes with Trump winning it to seal a 13–12 victory. He met O'Sullivan in the semi-finals and only made five breaks above 50 in an 11–17 defeat.
Trump began the 2013–14 season with first-round defeats at the Wuxi Classic, the Shanghai Masters and the International Championship, as well as failing to qualify for the Indian Open. In November, he reached the final of the minor-ranking Kay Suzanne Memorial Cup but lost 1–4 to Allen. Later that month, he made the first official maximum break of his career in the Antwerp Open during a last-32 defeat against Selby. He reached the fourth round of the 2013 UK Championship, losing to Allen, and he lost to Fu in the opening round of the 2014 Masters.
In the German Masters, Trump dropped just four frames in winning five matches to reach his first ranking final of the season, where he played Ding. The first session ended level at 4–4, before Trump lost five of the next six frames to be defeated 5–9. Higgins eliminated him in the last-16 at both the Welsh Open, and the World Open, where Higgins won 5–4 after Trump had taken a 4–0 lead. Trump won the Championship League title by beating Gould 3–1.
Trump defeated Tom Ford and Ryan Day to reach the quarter-finals of the 2014 World Championship, where he played Robertson. Trump led 6–2, 9–6 and 11–8, before Robertson fought back to win five consecutive frames and win the match 13–11. During their match, Trump chose not to acknowledge Robertson's 100th century break of the season and walked out of the arena instead. He later said that Robertson's achievement meant nothing to him and that making a maximum break of 147 was more special.
2014–2017