JUDD TRUMP laid down a marker by beating Shaun Murphy to keep himself on course to win the World Snooker Championship.
But he wasn’t completely satisfied with his performance after making hard work of getting the win.
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Juddernaught was 12-6 up but had to withstand a fightback from Murphy before finally getting over the line in a 13-10 victory.
And after the match, he commented: “It was an extremely difficult draw, before the tournament it was the stand-out tie that everyone was looking at, if we both got through the first round.
“You don’t really want to be putting in so much effort to get to a quarter-final. But I take a lot of confidence from beating Shaun in that way.
“In the end it was tremendous to get over the line.”
And Trump knows he will have to keep his focus up for his likely next opponent, 2023 champion Luca Brecel, who leads Ding Junhui 12-4.
He said: “Luca is playing really well, I know what he is capable of.
“If I play him my safety will need to be good enough to keep him out. I’ll need all of my experience.”
Trump also spoke out on bagging his hundredth century to win a £100,000 bonus, before immediately having to refocus on the match against Murphy.
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He said: “The crowd put on an amazing reception. I was a bit embarrassed to take the applause.
“To achieve it here at the Crucible was so special. But at that moment I knew I was in such a tough game, it was difficult to celebrate.
“I knew I had to win that last frame of the session to go 10-6 up.
“”Now that’s done, I can just concentrate on the tournament because it’s going to be a real battle over the next week.”