'When it’s your time you have to take advantage' - how Judd Trump secured hat-trick of titles

His 9-3 victory over Chris Wakelin on Sunday night at the BetVictor Northern Ireland Open in Belfast completed a remarkable month for the Bristol potter.

He became only the fifth player in snooker history – and first for a decade – to scoop three consecutive ranking titles.

The 34-year-old also won the BetVictor English Open and Wuhan Open titles, a winning streak of 20 consecutive matches which has seen him bank £300,000.

The only other players to have won three ranking titles on the spin are Ray Reardon, Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry and Sheffield-based Ding Junhui - the latter in 2013.

Trump, the 2019 world champion, now has 26 career ranking titles behind only Ronnie O’Sullivan (39), Hendry (36), John Higgins (31) and Davis (28).

“Things have happened so fast over the last three weeks, it feels surreal now and it has not sunk in,” said Trump, after battling from 2-1 down to beat Nuneaton’s Wakelin. He won eight of the next nine frames with thee centuries and four more 50-plus breaks.

“The last session tonight was the best I have felt in the whole 20-match run, I felt really sharp. Once I get in front I can relax, play my best and over-power my opponents.

“When you are playing well, people miss at the right times, you scrape through in deciders and live to fight another day. Mentally I have been in a good place when the chances come up.

“You have to remember how many tight games I have won. I could have lost all of them, they are often a 50-50 shoot out. The margins are so fine in snooker and when it’s your time you have to take advantage.

“I’ve had a lot of tournament wins within the last five years. There have still been people saying I have not been playing well, maybe because they expect more from me.

“It’s the same with Jack Lisowski, I suppose we make the game look easy sometimes that people expect even more. But it’s not that easy.”

He will go to next month’s International Championship in China seeking to become the second player to win four straight ranking titles, chasing Hendry’s record of five in a row set in 1990. Trump – who won the Northern Ireland Open for a fourth time - will be one of the favourites when the UK Championship returns to the York Barbican on November 25.