Judd Trump's dominance is making snooker "a bit boring" rival Mark Allen has claimed.

Trump has already collected more than £1m in prizemoney this season, making history as the first man to hit the milestone total before Christmas - and is the runaway world No.1. The Ace in the Pack, who opened his Masters campaign by destroying Barry Hawkins 6-1, has been in such dominant form that he's picking and choosing the events he competes in, as he focuses on a bid for world championship glory at the Crucible in May.

And No.4 seed Allen admits that other stars have to up their game to get anywhere near the Englishman, as he reflected on his brief time as the world's top ranked player between May and August of last year when Ronnie O'Sullivan and Trump crashed to surprise world championship defeats. He told SportsBoom: "It wasn't the way I wanted to get the world number one, but the rankings don't lie, and I still got there.

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"I would have loved to have won a match or won an event to get awarded number one. It wasn't quite meant to be. And then Judd is making it a bit boring at the minute, isn't he? He's not getting caught for some time. It's just up to the rest of us to keep trying our best to win tournaments here and there.

"Ultimately, if I can go and do well at Sheffield and win that, that gives me conversation again for being more number one. I'd love to get back there, but it's definitely a box tick in my career. These Triple Crown events are what I judge my career on. I've only won two and I feel like that's a very disappointing return for what I think I'm capable of, but it's tough. There's a lot of people out there that would love to win two.

“I’ll take nothing away from this event in the Masters, but I feel like I'm experimenting a little bit here to try and find something that's going to work in Sheffield.” I've been experimenting for a few months now and it seems to be doing all right now. Obviously, I've been reasonably consistent, but for me it's not about this week, it's about finding something that I can take to Sheffield and give myself the best chance there this year. I feel like that's the one that's missing.”

This season, while his performances have been consistently positive, Allen struggled to convert them into titles - until his breakthrough in Riyadh, where he triumphed at the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters, defeating Luca Brecel in the final. Allen credits that victory with rejuvenating his confidence, adding: “It's mad because a few years back, if you said to me, I have to wait seven months between tournament wins, I would have said that's alright. But whenever you feel like you're used to winning, seven months feels like an eternity and it feels like, am I ever going to win again? That’s the craziness of snooker.

“The good thing for me is I trended in the right direction before Christmas, four consecutive semi-finals, then go and win Saudi. I want to try and keep that going at the Masters."