Judd Trump slams Stephen Maguire for not trying during Welsh Open defeat

Judd Trump does not believe Stephen Maguire was putting any effort into their Welsh Open fourth round contest after the world champion downed the Scot 4-1 on Thursday night.

The world number one saw off Maguire pretty comfortably, despite not being anywhere near his brilliant best and booked a quarter-final clash with Shaun Murphy on Friday.

Trump was not impressed with his own performance, but was even less so with Maguire’s.

‘Terrible, it was bad,’ the world champ told Eurosport of his own display. ‘I don’t know, it was like he didn’t want to win, it kind of dampened the mood a little bit because he didn’t look interested.

‘It was hard for me to get up for it, I was a little bit tired and I was there for the taking. Anyone that showed a bit of fight probably would have beat me tonight.

‘His body language, when I missed a couple of easy balls he got down and missed them straight away, which he would never normally do.

‘I don’t know whether he was tired, but he didn’t really put up much of a fight out there.’

Maguire won the third frame of the match, but couldn’t find his form consistently and played some really poor shots, including an unbelievably bad snooker attempt in the fourth frame which allowed Trump to wrap it up.

‘Stuff like that, no one in the top eight or 16 should ever be doing that,’ Trump said of the failed snooker.

‘He was just taking no time over stuff, I was a bit confused in my head and it was putting me off a little bit.

‘Hopefully it’s given me the little nudge I needed to make sure my concentration is there for the whole game.’

Trump is part of a cracking quarter-final line-up in Wales, with Ronnie O’Sullivan taking on Mark Selby, John Higgins facing Yan Bingtao and Neil Robertson playing Kyren Wilson.

The 30-year-old feels like this might be the best last eight of any Home Nations event this year, believing the Welsh Open is a special tournament for players.

‘I think it could be the best, barely anybody’s been knocked out, all the top players are still in it,’ Trump continued.

‘This tournament, normally a top-ranked player wins it. The conditions normally play good, the atmosphere is good and it’s got a big history behind it.

‘I think everybody looks forward to it and tries their best.’