JUDD TRUMP has a 147 in his sights - saying nothing would give him “more pleasure” than to nick half of Ronnie O’Sullivan’s maximum break prize.
The 25-year-old had a chance to emulate the Rocket’s Thursday night heroics in the last frame of his 6-1 trouncing of Mark Davis in the Coral UK Championship quarter-final.
He broke down on 64, missing a tricky red with the rest, but declared his ambition - aside from winning the tournament - was to produce snooker’s 110th professional 147.
Should he achieve the feat, he would share half of the £40,000 rolling prize for a maximum and the £4,000 for the highest break, and Trump said: “I’ll be trying all the time now. I want to get one in this tournament. I have only had one so it would be nice to get one in a big tournament.”
Asked whether he would like to get his hands on some of the cash set to be going O’Sullivan’s way, the 2011 UK Champion at York smiled and said: “Nothing would give me more pleasure than to take some money off him. He’s nicked enough money off everyone else.”
Trump was in thrilling form against Davis, replying to his opponent’s 48 with a break of 72 to steal the first frame.
He repeated the trick in the second, with 58, but, although Davis managed to get on the board in the third, from there it was one way traffic.
Trump hit breaks of 77 and 65 to take a commanding lead and, in the end, he was gifted the match.
After his maximum attempt ended on the ninth red, Davis looked set to pull a frame back - methodically going through reds and colours as he compiled a break of 68.
But he missed the final black, and left Trump the simplest of pots over the pocket to rubber-stamp his place in the semi-finals.
Trump said: “I felt I was hitting the ball well - it’s the most comfortable I have felt out there. I felt I was hitting the ball as I was hitting it in practice.
“I was really timing it well and really getting through the white ball. I have been working on some stuff with my positional play and I think it really paid off.
“A lot of the breaks I made were a lot easier than I am used to making in the last couple of years. I think my position is really starting to improve.”
Davis felt he hadn’t done too much wrong in the match and, in a tournament where he stresed he had been scratching around for form, said he had played a “million times better” than at any other point.
“I was very fortunate to get this far,” he said. “I have been struggling with my game and didn’t really miss too much in the match.
“I thought he played great. In the first four frames - on any other day - I would have been 4-0 up. I missed one black in open play.
“But you have to knock them off in one visit when they are playing like that or you are not going to win.”
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