Judd Trump will be kicking himself for not making 147 in the final frame of his last-32 match against Liang Wenbo. The world number one could have easily hit the mark, joining Kyren Wilson and Stuart Bingham as others who made maximums at the UK Championship but let the chance slip off his fingers like a slippery eel.
The serial winner potted as many as 11 reds and 11 blacks, but then missed a final black, failing to hit that century mark he dearly craved. Jimmy White opined that Juddernaut could have played a different shot.
Trump was surely not at his fluent best but took advantage of Liang Wenbo’s mistakes to run out 6-1 riot over the Asian. Anyone who’s watched Trump recently knows he doesn’t need too much to take anyone to the cleaners.
He was ruthless and unrelenting at punishing Wenbo for his errors. He had the perfect chance to hit his first century in the game and a third 147 in the tournament with the scores at 5-1 but he missed the next black when trying a funky move and ended up with a break of 89.
A break of 89 is a huge one for any mid-tier player, but Trump has set the bar so high in the recent past so much so that he sees not hitting a maximum as a disappointment.
In an interview with a media outlet, the world number one said:
“When I was on zero! When I went down the first red I knew I was going for a max, no matter where the balls finished I was going to go for it.
“I was disappointed in the end because I missed an easy black thinking about whether to knock the red off the cushion or go up and knock it off that shot. In the end I didn’t concentrate on the black.
“I thought make sure I get a nice angle on the red on the top and then I can knock this and stay on the black, and they were all there from that point. It’s disappointing because I felt I could have made that…and to get that far and miss such an easy ball.”
Written by: Roland Arum
