Judd Trump lost his cool at the UK Championship on Saturday, demanding that a spectator be thrown out after he was interrupted three times. The 36-year-old was pitted up against Stephen Maguire in his first-round clash at York Barbican when he was forced to take a brief step away from the table due to a loud sneeze coming from an otherwise silent crowd.

The match referee then warned those watching from inside the arena to “please be careful.” However, when Trump returned to the table to line up a red, the sneeze was heard even louder than before. The sound clearly rattled the snooker World No. 1, as he looked towards the spectators with a look of bewilderment on his face. 

Trump then turned towards the referee, clearly unimpressed, as he said: “It’s not funny…that’s three times now,” before the match official replied: “Yeah, I think that’s on purpose, so we’ll try and remove them now.”

Trump then added: “Yeah, he needs to go,” before eyeing up the table once more in preparation for his shot. Tensions went from bad to worse when Trump finally played his shot, missing in agonising fashion to hand Maguire an advantage before shaking his head as he returned to his seat.

However, Maguire wasn’t able to take his chance, with Trump ultimately running out a 6-4 winner at the UK Championship. Trump also later opened up on the interruption in conversation with TNT Sports.

When asked about the happening, he said: “I mean, it’s not hard to sneeze silently or quietly. You don’t have to let it out as loud as you possibly can. Yeah, he was obviously doing it on purpose.”

As a result of his win, Trump will now face Si Jiahui in the round of 16, thanks to the Chinese sensation securing a 6-0 rout of Ryan Day during his opening game of the competition. It comes as Trump hasn’t won an event since snatching last year’s UK Championship thanks to a 10-8 triumph over Barry Hawkins.

The Englishman lost in the final of the Players Championship, the Northern Ireland Open and the Champion of Champions but has failed to reign supreme in 2025 on the whole. However, he believes that he has still had a decent year in the sport of snooker.

Speaking about his performances, Trump said: “It has been a decent year, a solid six or seven out of 10 with a lot of positives. I reached the semi-finals of the Masters, the semi-finals of the Worlds, reached four finals.

“On that basis, you could say I’m one of the in-form players of the year. Even if I won here, it would not be a good year compared to other seasons – unless I win seven events in a season, then it won’t do anything for me.

“So much is expected of me. If I don’t win straight away, there’s more pressure and you don’t have that time when you’re at the top. Having so many good years in a row, it brings you back down to earth, and you just have to work harder. I still really want to win every event and I’m not miles away.”