Judd Trump will be aiming to become the first player in a decade to win three consecutive ranking titles when he competes at the BetVictor Northern Ireland Open in Belfast next week.
Trump has won the BetVictor English Open and Wuhan Open within the past ten days, and if he completes the hat-trick at the Waterfront Hall on October 29th he will be the first player to win three in a row since 2013 when Ding Junhui captured the Shanghai Masters, Indian Open and International Championship. Only three other players in snooker history have won three consecutive ranking titles – Ray Reardon, Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry.
Bristol’s Trump could also go above Mark Williams into fifth place on his own in the all-time list of ranking event winners:
Ronnie O’Sullivan: 39
Stephen Hendry: 36
John Higgins: 31
Steve Davis: 28
Mark Williams: 25
Judd Trump: 25
Neil Robertson: 23
Mark Selby: 22
Trump won the Northern Ireland Open in 2018, 2019 and 2020, each time beating Ronnie O’Sullivan in the final
Looking ahead to the challenge, 34-year-old Trump said: “I’ve had an extremely good start to the season – probably my best ever. I’m on a freeroll now and anything else I win will be a bonus. When you are doing well you are constantly playing. There is so much snooker to play this season and it’s nice for the players to feel we are full time. I love playing in front of big crowds and venues like Belfast bring the best out of me.”
Trump’s first match at the Waterfront will be against Jenson Kendrick at 1pm on Sunday, on a tremendous opening day when all of the top 16 seeds will be in action – the match schedule is below. Tickets for certain sessions of the event are still on sale from just £15 – for details click here.
Sunday October 22nd, line-up
10am
Neil Robertson v Wu Yize
Robert Milkins v Cao Yupeng
Ryan Day v Ma Hailong
Not before 1pm
Judd Trump v Jenson Kendrick
Kyren Wilson v Sam Craigie
Ricky Walden v Ben Woollaston
Not before 2pm
Mark Williams v Tian Pengfei
Jack Lisowski v Rebecca Kenna
Robbie McGuigan v Muhammad Asif
7pm
Mark Allen v Ben Mertens
Shaun Murphy v Ryan Thomerson
David Gilbert v Joel Connolly
Not before 8pm
Ronnie O’Sullivan v Ahmed Aly Elsayed
Anthony McGill v Jimmy White
Gary Wilson v Louis Heathcote
