GRACIOUS JUDD

This is the second consecutive blog in here about Judd Trump, but it is impossible not to praise the dominant World Number 1.

After coming up short against World Champion Kyren Wilson in the Xi'an Grand Prix final, Trump got straight back to a third consecutive final, in the inaugural Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters. 

And this time the Englishman got the title, a second triumph of the season for the now dominant leader of the world ranking.

Like I said last time, Judd Trump's own greatness makes people under appreciate his success in tournaments other than the Triple Crowns, but how not to appreciate that wonderful clearance in the decider against Mark Williams to win the title on a black ball that was worth the £300k difference between winning and losing? How to be a snooker fan and feel anything other than admiration for Judd Trump?

He may not be mine or your's favourite player, but it has to be said how gracious he's been in wins or defeats. Mark Williams is the same of course, and that certainly made what turned out to be one of the best finals in recent years very enjoyable for everyone to watch.

Now, on the event... The snooker played on the inaugural Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters was enjoyable, as it always is for the fans at top level snooker. But what everyone has been discussing is its status as the sport's "fourth major".

The money was unbelievable, all the players seemed to have wonderful things to say about hospitality, and the propaganda on the commentary and the official social medias made sure there was only positvity coming out of Riyadh. However, the "fourth major" status is clearly an allusion to the Triple Crown events, and there are quite a few reasons as to why I think this event is not in the same league yet.

When we talk about prestige, there's more to it than money and propaganda. 

History would never be a factor anyway, since the Triple Crown have been going on for 50 years and this was a first go.

The crowd was a no-show for the first half of the event, and even towards the end only a few selected sessions were packed out (basically Ronnie's matches and the second session of the final), with a few matches literally being played to an empty auditorium. 

The viewing figures have not come out yet, but I can tell that the online repercussion was not close to what we usually have in the Triple Crown events.

All that is the result of a lot of things. Not just all the political matter that made many protest against this event, I feel like the short length of matches did not help the cause either. 

A lot is said about how sports are now way more dynamic and sped up, but snooker fans are snooker fans because they love snooker and not because they love speed - long matches are part of what snooker is, hence the bigger success of events with longer matches. Plus the longer matches usually favour the bigger names - although the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters got a starry final, a lot of the big names were lost in the early stages.

It was only the first go of an event that is expected to go on for quite a few more years, but it was part of Saudi Arabia's bid to host the World Championship after 2027. And although I unfortunately expect Matchroom's decision to be based only on short-term profit, I don't think this event has helped Saudi in that bid.

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