Trump crashed out of the World Snooker Championship’s last 16 to Iran’s Hossein Vafaei and was brutally frank about his current standing. This will take a significant hit following the loss of points from the Saudi Arabia Masters, meaning he cannot defend the £500,000 on the money list from his victory two years ago. He said: “With the world No.1 thing, I don’t feel like I’ve played good enough to hold it. It’s something I love being, I’m still No.1 at the moment, but I think maybe I need someone to overtake me to give myself a bit of a kick at the backside to produce the goods again. I’ve been consistent, but not good enough.”
Trump had opportunities to seal victory in the decisive final frame of his 13-12 defeat and added: “I think the world No.1, you want to be clearing up in that kind of position. That’s what you’ve got to do to be world champion and world No.1. It’s just disappointing.
“It hurts, but I had my chance. It’s not like I was unlucky or anything like that. I’ve got nothing to be angry about. It just wasn’t good enough.
“It still hurts. I still wanted to win, but the game was played in a good spirit. I like Hussein so I’m not going to be angry at him or anything like that. I had my chance and I think, as you get older, you learn to be a little bit more chill when you lose.
“I just feel like a few of us have been a bit more off the boil than usual this season. I think I’ve not been quite as good. The games that I’ve been winning for the last five or six years, I’ve been losing this year and that’s because I’ve just not been clinical enough.
“I don’t want to speak on behalf of other players, but I think it’s the same. Not as clinical, not as good, not as confident. I just feel like a few of us have maybe dropped our levels a little bit.
“The longer the season goes on, I kind of want it to finish. I gave it my all this time and the same pattern really happened again, so it’s nice just to get that out of your head and start again fresh I think. Find whatever I need to do and get my head right, have a break and go in fresh for the next season.”