Judd Trump breaks century record in style at World Snooker Championship
More history for the world number one.
Judd Trump has broken the record for most centuries in a professional season, knocking in his 104th of the campaign on Wednesday night.
The world number one has had another superb season, winning the Shanghai Masters, Saudi Arabia Masters and UK Championship.
Such has been his success that he has even taken some events off, choosing to skip the Championship League ranking event, Scottish Open and Welsh Open.
However, that has not held him back in breaking the century record, reaching the history-making 104th ton against Luca Brecel in the World Championship quarter-final on Wednesday, with back-to-back efforts of 115 and 116.
Trump reached 100 centuries in his win over Shaun Murphy in the second round, only the third time that has happened in professional snooker.
Neil Robertson was the first to do so in 2013-14 when he set the record for most tons in a campaign at 103.
The second man to manage the feat was Trump, who made 102 in 2019-20 and the Ace has now surpassed his previous best and Robertson’s record.
Reaching the milestone of 100 centuries for the season won Trump a very nice bonus of £100,000, continuing his extremely profitable campaign.
The world number one has pocketed over £1.4m so far this season and could add to that significantly over the next few days at the Crucible.
There is £500,000 on offer for the winner in Sheffield, with the runner-up taking £200,000 and the semi-finalists trousering £100,000.
There remains a chance that Trump could set another record during this tournament, with the most centuries during a Crucible campaign in his sights.
Stephen Hendry holds that record with 16 in 2002, with Trump taking his tally to 11 with his 104th against Brecel.
Despite the huge bonus being on offer and having achieved the milestone earlier in his career, Trump insisted that he wasn’t targeting making 100 centuries this campaign.
‘I didn’t target it,’ he said. ‘It just so happened that in the Championship League [Invitational] the pockets were playing very large. I went in the fourth or fifth group, so if I was really trying, I would have gone in the first group
‘As I said, I didn’t target it at all, I didn’t even think it was a possibility. I didn’t even want to be in contention but after the Championship League, I didn’t expect the pockets to be so big, and the centuries were flying in for everyone. If I had known that I would have been playing in the first group.’
