Phil Haigh ✍️
Judd Trump is not sure Neil Robertson can keep up his fine form this season at the World Snooker Championship and believes the Australian is ‘mentally not quite as strong as some of the other players.’
Robertson has been the player of the season so far, winning three ranking titles and the Masters and arrived in Sheffield as the pre-tournament favourite.
He has to overcome a disappointing Crucible record in recent years, which has seen him reach just one semi-final since he won the world title in 2010.
The Thunder from Down Under has blamed some of his Crucible shortcomings on the cramped nature of the venue, although he admitted earlier in the season that he will no longer use that as an excuse, and feels he should build a better team around him for the 17-day slog of the World Championship.
‘I have to stop making excuses about how tight the venue is,’ he said at the Masters in January. ‘I have maybe been too stubborn at that event where I haven’t surrounded myself with enough of the right people.
‘It is great winning a tournament by yourself, where you are your own mentor or psychologist, but for the World Championship it is different and you need a good team around you because there are so many sessions.’
Trump agrees with this, saying ahead of this year’s World Championship: ‘It’s nice to have friends and family back supporting. For me, when I come here I like to have a big base around me so I feel at home. This is the first year in three that I’ve been able to do that.’
The 2019 world champion feels it is the lack of a team around him that has really cost Robertson over the last 12 years, and he is not sure 2022 will finally be the Aussie’s year again.
The Ace feels Robertson has shown some mental fragility in Sheffield, while he also thinks that heading to the World Championship as the man in form is not necessarily a good thing.
‘I think that [not having a team around him] is probably the main reason he hasn’t done better in this event,’ Trump told Metro.co.uk of Robertson. ‘He’s got the talent. He’s easily good enough to have won it the same as Mark Selby or even more, with his talent and cue action.
‘He’s just mentally not quite as strong as some of the other players.
‘But he’s the man in form this year, which when you come to the World Championship is probably not a good thing.
‘You can look at it either way, he’s obviously going to be confident, but to do what he’s done in the last few months and do well here, is it going to happen? Who knows. But it’ll be tough.’
Robertson got his Crucible campaign off to a good start with a win over Ashley Hugill to set up a second round clash with Jack Lisowski, who beat Matthew Stevens in the last 32.
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