Judd Trump

Date of Birth: 21 Aug 1989
Lives: Romford, Essex
World Ranking: 9
Last Season in PLS: Did not play
Best PLS Performance: Semi-Finalist 2009
Turned Pro: 2005
Ranking Tournament Victories: One - Bank of Beijing China Open 2011
Highest Tournament Break: 142

Within the space of six weeks in spring 2011, Judd Trump made the transition from young talent with potential, to a new star with a major title under his belt.

With a burst of good form, he won the Bank of Beijing China Open title and so nearly completed the fairytale by winning the Betfred.com World Championship.

Now back in the Premier League for the second time, Trump played in the 2009 event after winning the qualifying tournament, Championship League Snooker to gain a spot. He went on to reach the semis.

The Bristol-born left-hander, who is now based in Romford, made a relatively quiet start to the season, highlighted by victory in the first Euro Players Tour Championship event. He beat Shaun Murphy in the semis then came from 3-1 down to beat Anthony Hamilton 4-3 in the final of the Paul Hunter Classic.

But as he flew to Beijing in late March, Trump was hoping for little more than to win a few matches at the end of the season and perhaps gain a top 16 berth. He could not have dreamed of what was to follow.

In China, he knocked out Marco Fu, Mark Davis and Peter Ebdon, then stunned Shaun Murphy 6-1 to reach the final. A high quality contest against Mark Selby saw both players make three century breaks before Trump eventually prevailed 10-8 to win his first ranking title.

"My career starts now," said Trump. "The last few years have been a steep learning curve. It's an unbelievable feeling and it's come out of nowhere as I've never shown any form this season. Every time I got to a venue I was preparing myself to come home early, that's the lack of confidence I had."

Imbued by a massive boost of confidence, Trump went on to the Betfred.com World Championship and promptly knocked out defending champion Neil Robertson in the first round. The gifted potter, nicknamed The Ace, thrived on the Crucible atmosphere as his audacious attacking style, good looks and carefree attitude captured the public imagination and helped him build an army of fans.

He went on to beat Martin Gould, Graeme Dott and Ding Junhui, to set up a classic final against John Higgins.

With echoes of Shaun Murphy in 2005, Trump's laser straight cueing and fearless approach looked to be leading him to the title when he led 10-7 overnight. Crucially, he missed a blue which could have put him 13-9 ahead, and experienced Higgins recovered to lead 13-12 after three sessions.

The atmosphere inside the arena as the final session commenced was agreed by all to be the best ever witnessed at a snooker match. "Win or lose, what an atmosphere," tweeted Trump, who gained thousands of followers on twitter over the course of the event.

But in the end Higgins proved too strong, winning 18-15 and leaving Trump to wonder what might have been. "To get to the final is a good achievement," said Trump, who collected £185,000 in prize money within six weeks and jumped to ninth in the world rankings. "The support I have received has been unbelievable. At the start 17 days ago I was no one, but with every match it has been building and building. It wasn't enough this time but I will be back next year."

Previously, Trump's best run in a ranking event took him to the semi-finals of the 2008 Grand Prix, and he beat Ronnie O'Sullivan before losing to Higgins.

He won his first professional title with victory at the qualifying tournament for the 2009 Masters at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield. He beat Matthew Couch, Dave Harold, Jamie Cope, Jin Long and Ken Doherty to reach the final, then hammered Mark Joyce 6-1 to earn a wildcard to Wembley Arena for snooker's most prestigious invitation event. He faced Mark Allen in the first round at Wembley and lost 6-4.

Trump made his Crucible debut in 2007, beating James Wattana in the final qualifying round to become the third youngest player (after Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan) to play there. He threatened an upset as he led Shaun Murphy, 6-5 but Murphy won the next five frames to go through 10-6.

During his debut season in 2005/06, Trump became the youngest player ever to qualify for a ranking event venue by making the final stages of the Welsh Open.

In 2003, he became the youngest ever winner of the Pontin's Open, beating Mike Hallett in the final.

In 2004, aged 14 years and 208 days, he became the youngest player to make a competitive maximum 147 break, beating the record set by Ronnie O'Sullivan in 1991.

He has been English champion at under-13 and under-15 level and also reached the semi-finals of the 2004 IBSF World Under-21 Championship.