Judd Trump has warned it will take a lot to stop him after powering past another former world champion to reach the Crucible semi-finals.
The 21-year-old, who grew up in Bristol, had to come through qualifying for the Betfred.com World Championship, but is now just two wins away from landing the title.
He finished off 2006 champion Graeme Dott 13-5, with breaks of 67 and 78 seeing him complete victory in just two frames this afternoon, and goes on to face either Ding Junhui or Mark Selby for a place in the final.
'I do feel a little bit invincible at the moment, it's a good feeling to have,' Trump said.
'But at any stage of this tournament anybody could beat me 13-3 or 13-4 because the standard is so high. But I know I can do that to the rest of the players.'
Trump now faces the one-table situation at the Crucible for the first time, with his semi-final getting under way on Thursday afternoon.
With one table being removed from the arena tonight, the other will be moved to centre stage, which is precisely where Trump wants to be for the rest of his career.
'I think I'll go out and enjoy it a little more now,' he said.
'I've got the whole crowd to entertain now, which is going to be good, rather than having just half the arena to myself. I think I'll go out there and enjoy the experience.'
Wins over last year's champion Neil Robertson and Martin Gould carried Trump through to the tussle with Dott, which was surprisingly one-sided.
'It was a little bit easier than I thought it was going to be,' Trump added. 'Not that Graeme played badly, I just went out there from the start and played really well.
'I put pressure on him every time I got in. I knew that if I was clearing up every time there would be that extra bit of pressure on him.
'I feel I can win the title. I don't want to give off a too cocky image, but I'm very confident in myself and I think you need to be.
'A lot of the older players want to go out and teach you a lesson and batter you and put little scars on you for when you come here in the future. I just need to keep winning and keep that freshness.'
Dott, 33, was complimentary about his conqueror.
The Scot said: 'I was trying everything I could do but sometimes you go out there and you feel flat, you don't feel involved in the match.
'But that's probably all credit to Judd. He kept me off the table. Any time I did get a chance there was something awkward.
'I just couldn't get involved in the match. Judd played fantastically and thoroughly deserved to win.
'If he plays as well as that all the way through he's got a chance to win it, obviously, because it's very hard to stop someone that's potting like that.
'But the World Championship is supposed to test every aspect of somebody's game.
'It'll test your technique, your temperament, your safety play. But he's not been asked any of that yet.
'All we know is that he's potting absolutely everything, and that will be good enough to win the title.
'But the big question comes if he stops potting everything. How's he going to cope? Is his safety game going to be good enough? Is his temperament going to be good enough?'
Earlier on Wednesday, Mark Williams reached the last four for the first time since 2003, the year he landed his second world title.
The 36-year-old Welshman was a 13-5 winner over Northern Ireland's Mark Allen and takes on John Higgins or Ronnie O'Sullivan next.
He will take the occasion in his stride, just as he has all his matches so far.
Williams was chatting about football in the media room just five minutes before his second session began against Allen on Tuesday night.
'That's the way I am really,' he said. 'I'm mostly relaxed most of the time.
'I'm lucky enough I don't get butterflies when I go out there, I just really float around.
'It's only a snooker match. I try 100 per cent to win and the worst thing that can happen to you is you lose, which isn't that bad is it?'
No comments:
Post a Comment