Neil Robertson has made a request to Judd Trump asking his snooker rival to lift the ‘curse’ placed upon him in a bizarre video message.
The 42-year-old beat Trump 6-4 in the quarter-finals of the Champion of Champions last week, leading the current world No 1 to air his frustrations after a close contest.
Trump claimed he was “very unlucky” to lose at the hands of Robertson’s and suggested his victory had some fortune attached to it.
“Neil knows that he didn’t deserve to win like that,” Trump said after the match.
Robertson then went on to lose 6-2 in the semi-finals to eventual winner Mark Williams, before scraping past Oliver Lines in qualifying for the UK Championship by the skin of his teeth.
The 2010 former world champion now believes his luck has turned for the worse and made a strange, tongue-in-cheek request to Trump to ‘remove the curse’ above his head.
“Wowee… so Judd, after our match when you called me ‘so lucky’, I’ve had anything but luck. Could you please remove the curse you have put upon me?” Robertson said in a clip on his Instagram Story.
“Was it the thin red – two cushions in behind the yellow touching ball – that sent you over the edge? If so, yes man, can you please remove the curse because they’re playing a game… like this isn’t much fun, I do like a challenge.
“But enough is enough, you’ve had your fun. Remove the curse to allow me to play the game with equal luck as everyone. Thank you, mate.”
The Australian survived an almighty scare in qualifying for the UK Championship against Lines when he came back from the brink of elimination. He could only watch on as his opponent lined up the final remaining red for a pot when leading 44-0 in the deciding frame.
But he fluffed his lines, allowing Robertson to mount a comeback and he went on to secure a 6-5 victory.
Shortly after the match, he wrote a post via his X account which reflected what he said in the video: “Phew! Although after @juddtrump mean comments after our game he seems to have put a bloody curse on my luck ever since!”
He added a gif image of a man sprinting to the post, which he joked was: “Me looking for him right now.”
Robertson faces Matthew Stevens in the final round of qualifying on Thursday as he looks to secure his place in the main draw of the tourmanent, which begins in York on Saturday.
