Snooker: Judd Trumps claims first World Championship title

Judd Trump dominated John Higgins in the Snooker World Championship, he won the match 18-9 to claim his maiden world title. The two players produced a record 11 century breaks in the final and brought the total tournament tally to 100 century breaks. Trump won eight consecutive frames in the first day of the final and headed into the second with a comfortable 12-5 lead. Both players missed good chances of maximum breaks in the next session, which ended with Trump leading 16-9. The final session was just a formality for the new world champion, who pockets 500,000 pounds in prize money from this tournament. This victory also moves Trump to second place in the world rankings. "It is incredible achievement for me from where I was," 29-year-old Judd Trump said after the match. "I have worked so hard for this. For the people around me this is so special. It was an amazing final, the standard was so high from the very first ball. That is probably the best I have ever played in a major final." The match had an extremely high level, with the two contenders making frame-winning breaks of 50 or more in 23 of the 27 frames played. This year's final has broken a few records: most century breaks in a professional match and also most century breaks by a player in a single match. John Higgins, a four-time world champion, has now lost three consecutive World Championship finals. He lost the final to Mark Selby in 2017 and then last year he was defeated by Mark Williams. He has lost four finals overall, two less than record-holder Jimmy White. Reaching the final this time was quite an achievement for Higgins, who has not won a ranking event all season. "I was the lucky one to not have to pay for a ticket, he was just awesome," Higgins admitted. "It will be the first of many I am sure, to produce a standard like that is incredible. He was unplayable. I never expected to get to the final, I came up against an unstoppable machine." The next major event in the world of professional snooker is the UK Championship that starts at the end of November, now Judd Trump is 7/2 to win it and world number one Ronnie O'Sullivan is 3/1 to claim the title.