By Elliott West
Newly crowned German Masters champion Judd Trump says the UK is “struggling” to attract new snooker talent for the next generation.
The Bristol Ace lifted his 15th world ranking title on Sunday night when he beat in-form Neil Robertson 9-6 to win the Berlin event and his fourth ranking title of the season.
Since winning the Masters over a year ago, Trump has become the dominant force of the sport winning several world ranking events including the World Championship for the first time in May 2019. During this time he has pocketed prize money to the tune of well over £1million.
Trump’s golden spell has come after flourishing as a youngster to become on of the snooker’s most watchable players.
Judd Trump. Picture courtesy of Monique Limbos
But the world number one has expressed his concerns for the future of snooker grassroots in the UK and has predicted snooker’s elite to be mostly filled by Asian players in years to come.
In a recent interview with BetVictor – sponsors of snooker’s European series of ranking events – Trump said he felt the UK was being taken over in terms of snooker development by other countries.
He said: “There is a lot of promising young players coming through. I would say China has sort of taken over but the UK is sort of struggling a little bit I think.
“Over the next five or ten years I think you will see half the top 16 probably coming from Asia.”
Trump added he believes he could be playing for the next fifteen to twenty years and already has Ronnie’s 1,000 centuries’ record in his sights.
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