Judd Trump sinks shot of the tournament contender in World Snooker Championship win over Anthony McGill

ByBen Snowball

Published 25/04/2022 at 22:07 GMT

We’ve become accustomed to a catalogue of Judd Trump specials over the past few seasons, but this campaign has seen the 2019 world champion struggle to hit his best form. The former world No. 1 pulled out a brilliant couple of shots in the 24th frame of his match with Anthony McGill as he scraped into the quarter-finals with a 13-11 win at the Crucible.

Judd Trump produced a shot of the tournament contender as he navigated the nervy closing stages of his thriller with Anthony McGill at the World Championship on Monday.

Leading 12-11 in the best-of-25 encounter, and with the players locked in a safety exchange, Trump was presented with a tricky cut on the yellow to get amongst the final colours. He needed the yellow plus the green and brown, which were perched down the other end of the table, to leave McGill requiring snookers.

Trump duly rifled home the yellow and sent the cue ball dancing off two cushions towards the green, prompting excitement in the Eurosport commentary box.

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“How about this,” began Dominic Dale.

“Ooo, it’s perfect. He can roll in the green, he’ll automatically be on the brown and that will be match ball. What a shot from Judd Trump.”

Fellow commentator Phil Yates went even higher with his praise.

“Given context and timing, one of the shots of the championship,” he said.

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The next two pots seemed a foregone conclusion but Trump botched the green, potting it but leaving the cue ball short, to spark nerves in his camp.

“He had so much room to play with there, anything but short,” exclaimed Dale.

For what felt like an age, Trump eyed up the difficult brown before eventually settling on attempting the pot. He got settled, drew a sharp breath and fizzed it home to spark huge applause in the Crucible.

With the blue safe, McGill was soon allowed to return to the table requiring snookers – but his challenge quickly ended as Trump played a remarkable double off the top cushion to seal a quarter-final spot.

“What a battle that was, great to see Judd Trump with a smile back on his face,” said Yates.

“He was over the 24 frames, I believe, just marginally the better player.”

Trump will face Stuart Bingham in the last eight.

Trump seals victory over McGill with long-range double at World Championship

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Stream the World Championship and other top snooker live and on-demand on discovery+. You can also watch all the action live on eurosport.co.uk.

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