Judd Trump has the snooker world at his feet – what he does with it is up to him

Stephen Hendry was 21. John Higgins was 22. Steve Davis was 23. Ronnie O’Sullivan was 25. Snooker may not be a young man’s game, but its serial winners all started collecting world titles early.

Aged 29, it has taken Judd Trump a little longer. Ever since he was 14, beating all comers in the clubs around Bristol, Trump was repeatedly told he become a world champion one day. On Monday he managed it, brilliantly and emphatically, but amid the joy there was also an understandable sense of relief. “It will be nice to relax now going into major tournaments,” he said afterwards. “People won’t be asking when I’m going to win anymore.”

As the most gifted player of his generation, you could argue Trump has been a little wasteful. Speaking in the studio after Trump rattled in another sensational century, Hendry seemed almost outraged that it had taken him so long to produce this kind of landmark performance. “Judd must be wondering what he could have achieved if he’d knuckled down sooner,” the seven-time champion remarked.

But Trump doesn’t owe Hendry or the rest of us anything. These days life tends to happen a little later – relationships, families, careers and becoming champion of the world can take time figure out – and Trump evidently needed a few years to mature. He has made no secret of enjoying the high life over the past few years: travelling the world, nights out, fast cars, and embracing the big cheques and awkward low-level fame that comes with being one of the world’s best snooker players.

It is up to Trump how he uses his time and his talent, and this year he has employed them both to great effect, meticulously honing his tactical game off the table and winning the Masters and the World Championship on it to complete the triple crown – the 11th player in history to do so. What was so arresting was the manner in which they were achieved: dismantling O’Sullivan 10-4 at Alexandra Palace, crushing John Higgins 18-9 at the Crucible. Both were smothered by Trump’s heavy scoring, barely allowed to come up for breath.

Much has been made of the improvement in Trump’s all-round game, for which he has credited his younger brother Jack, who came to work and tour with him full-time last year and forced Judd to practice the ‘boring bits’ – safety, long pots, strategy. Trump talked after his semi-final against Gary Wilson on Saturday about how he fell back on his safety game when he wasn’t playing his very best, when for so many years he would have tried to pot his way out of trouble.

But what was just as striking in the final was how his attacking game has not diminished in the process. He is more careful in his shot selection and it means when does choose to take on a pot it has been considered, and it will get his full concentration. That hasn’t always been the case, and the result was that almost everything he touched went in.

Whether he can sustain this level is questionable. Higgins described it as the best performance he’s ever come up against while a very grounded Trump admitted that his record seven centuries against Higgins would be hard to repeat. But he is not yet 30, and if the class of ’92 – Higgins, O’Sullivan and last year’s world champion Mark Williams – have taught us anything recently it’s that a snooker career can bloom long into the autumn. Trump now has the world at his feet; what he does with it is up to him.