![\"Gary](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/daa24e6f-a7b7-4b52-8b13-fa96847f4c43.jpg\")
<\/p>\nDespite entering the tournament as the world number one, Trump has been somewhat overlooked in the build-up, with more focus on Ronnie O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s quest to win a record eighth crown or Zhao Xintong\u2019s bid to crack the Crucible \u2018curse\u2019.<\/p>\n
Trump, who is still searching for his second world title after clinching his first in 2019, said: \u201cI enjoy that other people are being spoken about a lot more, because all the pressure is on them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf no one is expecting me to win, it\u2019s not going to be a big shock if I don\u2019t win. I know deep down I\u2019m more than good enough to win it, but I enjoy being the underdog at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gary Wilson during his first round match against Judd Trump<\/p>\n
Trump has steadily built momentum during the current campaign despite being forced to move from his base in Dubai to train in Thailand because of the repercussions of the war in Iran.<\/p>\n
And he is determined to retain his status as world number one, which is under threat from Zhao and Neil Robertson, both of whom could usurp the 36-year-old if they go on to win the tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like being number one, and I think it\u2019s going to be difficult to keep unless I do really well next season,\u201d added Trump. \u201cBut if I win the World Championship, it puts that all to bed really.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love being number one and I take a lot of pride from that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump resumed on Tuesday evening 5-4 ahead after a topsy-turvy opening session on Monday in which he hit back from 4-1 down.<\/p>\n
Wilson fired a break of 58 to pull level after the restart, but Trump generally held the upper hand in an attritional encounter and powered to the finish line with top breaks of 71 and 69.<\/p>\n
Afterwards, former semi-finalist Wilson revealed he was \u201cembarrassed\u201d by the state of his game and bemoaned his inability to punish an opponent who was far from his best.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m constantly feeling like an embarrassment,\u201d said Wilson, a three-time ranking event winner who lost to Trump on his solitary appearance in the semi-finals in 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople don\u2019t see me as that, but I\u2019m not competing anywhere near the level I used to be able to do. I\u2019m just so much worse than I used to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cJudd would be the first to tell you he wasn\u2019t great. I should really have been 5-2 or 5-3 up. If I\u2019m a normal player, like I was years ago, like any other pro on the tour who\u2019s got half a brain, I would probably be winning that game unless Judd really plays well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liam Pullen made four half-centuries but still trails 13th seed Chris Wakelin 5-4 after the first session of their first-round match that concludes on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Pullen, 20, looked unfazed on his tournament debut and delivered a crucial break of 58 to win the final frame of the morning and keep himself well in contention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite entering the tournament as the world number one, Trump has been somewhat overlooked in the build-up, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,898,112],"class_list":["post-411254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news-ticker","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}