Judd Trump shrugged off comparisons with Ronnie O’Sullivan but left no doubt he is aiming to overhaul his rival’s record of 41 world ranking titles after clinching his second UK Championship crown in York on Sunday.
Trump stands fourth on the all-time list with 30 to his name and continues to rack up tournament wins at a staggering rate, having clinched a record six in the 2019/20 campaign alone.
But he remains a seemingly untouchable distance away from O’Sullivan’s 23 ‘triple crown’ titles, having landed his fifth with his gruelling 10-8 win over qualifier Barry Hawkins at the Barbican Centre.
Trump said: “I’m not comparing myself to Ronnie. I already set the record winning six events in a season and that’s very special to me. I think the only thing bigger than that would be to win all three triple crowns in a season.
“In terms of how hard it is to win six events, I’d put that up there as extremely difficult because no-one else has done it.
“It’s different for me. I’m in the hardest era of all time by a mile. I’m always going to be compared to Ronnie and others, but I think the time has changed. I think it’s even harder now to win a triple crown.”
Trump has often been criticised for coming up short in the sport’s three biggest events, with his last UK triumph coming way back in 2011, and with a solitary world title still to his name.
But unlike many of his rivals, in particular O’Sullivan, who routinely skips the so-called lesser events on the calendar, the 35-year-old appears hungry to rack up more ranking titles of all shapes and sizes across the calendar.
“They all mean the same – it doesn’t matter to me,” said Trump, whose rise back to the top of the world this season has been facilitated by a win at the Saudi Arabia Masters as well as the non-ranking Shanghai Masters.
“It makes no difference. If I am up there at the end of my career with the all-time greats then brilliant, but I am just going to try and keep knocking out the ranking events and see where I can get to.
“It is still a long way to go from where I want to be in my career.”
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