“I was completely gone” admits Judd Trump after Quarter-Final comeback win over Stuart Bingham
Trump salutes the crowd (Credit: Zac Goodwin/PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo)
Judd Trump admits he was “completely gone” at 8-5 behind to Stuart Bingham, but dug deep to progress to a fifth World Championship Semi-Final.
The match appeared to turn on a missed black off the spot from Bingham in frame 14, with Trump responding with three consecutive frames to level at eight apiece going into the final session.
The 2019 World Champion then continued his dominance after the restart, reeling off a further five frames without reply to reach the hallowed one-table setup at The Crucible.
Trump revealed his mind began to wander towards booking a holiday during the second session but was handed an unexpected lifeline by Bingham’s missed black.
“In the end it was comfortable but at one point this morning I was really struggling and I was thinking about going on holiday. All that was coming into my head,” Trump told BBC Sport.
“All of sudden, out of nowhere, Stuart missed a black off its spot and it gave me some confidence.
“I was completely gone at 8-5. I just tried to enjoy playing badly and give my all.
“A couple of the events before this I wasn’t enjoying because I was playing badly, but here I know I’m giving it my all, being patient and waiting for things to turn around.
“Tonight he was really struggling, the same as I was. It’s the hardest place in the world to pot a ball out there and you can fall to pieces so easily.
“Seeing the [Semi-Final] line-up with Ronnie [O’Sullivan] and Mark Williams, it is not something you want to be sat at home for.
“I’m so excited to still be in the event.”
Trump, who went on to win the title three years ago the last time he reached the one-table setup in Sheffield, will now meet three-time World Champion Mark Williams – who defeated Yan Bingtao 13-11 earlier in the day.
Bingham, who had reeled off five frames in a row on Wednesday morning from 5-3 down, conceded: “If you’d have said at 8-5 up I’d have lost 13-8, I’d have said you were joking.
“Everything started to go a bit wrong, I lost my mojo a bit and collapsed like a cheap tent in the end.”
GET £60 IN BONUSES WHEN YOU JOIN BETFRED AND STAKE £10 (18+ | T&Cs APPLY | BE GAMBLE AWARE)