Snooker: Trump suffers shock early exit

By Paul Smith, Sportsbeat 

DEFENDING champion Judd Trump believes his performance in suffering a shock first round exit at the UK Championship was as bad as it gets for a player of his standard.

World no.1 Trump was beaten 6-5 by Mark Joyce at York's Barbican Centre, despite having led 5-2.

But Joyce rallied and kept his nerve in the decider to pull off the surprise of the tournament with a display that made a mockery of his world ranking of 50.

Trump, who replaced Mark Selby at the top of the rankings at the start of November, admits his performance was ill-befitting of a world no.1.

"I should never play that badly," said the 23-year-old Bristolian. "You will never see a number one play that badly again.

"As soon as he started missing it affected me, and I couldn't get into the balls. It is hard for someone to play well when the other person isn't playing that well.

"My safety wasn't great, I was struggling for my tip and my long potting was just awful.

"I prepared very well for this, as much as for any tournament. You can't win them all but it is disappointing to play this badly."

British Eurosport is the Home of Snooker, showing 19 tournaments this season including the World Championship, UK Championship, the Masters and all ranking events, available on Sky (410/411) and Virgin Media (521/525) or online/on mobile via eurosportplayer.co.uk

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