Judd Trump defends his German Masters Title
The 2021 German Masters was played behind closed doors in Milton Keynes from 27th to 31st January 2021. Ahead of the tournament, it was announced that the trophy would be renamed the “Brandon Parker Trophy”, in honour of the late WBBSA director who brought snooker to the iconic Tempodrom in Berlin and worked tirelessly to develop snooker in mainland Europe.
Judd Trump successfully defended his German Masters title, beating Jack Lisowski by 9-2 in the final, and becoming the first player to achieve a successful defense of that particular event. This was Judd’s 21st ranking title, his 4th this season, his 12th since the start of 2019. Judd is clearly the dominant force in snooker currently.
This was the first time in 26 years that successive ranking finals had been contested by the same two players. The previous time was when Steve Davis and John Higgins faced each other in the 1995 International Open and 1995 Welsh Open finals: John Higgins had won the first, Steve Davis the second. This time, the same player won both as Judd Trump went on to lift the Brandon Parker Trophy after winning the 2020 World Grand Prix last December.
The match wasn’t as one-sided as the score suggests: quite a number of frames were close. The worrying thing for Jack is that, despite getting chances, he didn’t win any of them, he missed all the crucial balls.
Judd was obviously delighted and paid tribute to Brandon Parker: “It is incredible, another win. It was obviously tough for me and Jack to both miss the Masters. It was nice that we both got to the final in this one. It’s always tough playing against him, being my friend. It’s never going to be as enjoyable as winning against somebody else. It is a game you always have to play your best in. I’m enjoying my snooker. Whenever you win, you are always going to enjoy it. It is just important for me to keep doing the right things. I’ve not stopped practising hard. I’ve kept up that momentum. I’ve not rested at all over the last couple of years. I’ve put the work in and am fully getting the rewards. Brandon was someone who created snooker in the European countries. He started off with some minor events and in the end he turned the German Masters into a fully-fledged ranking event. Berlin was a really special place for the German Masters. I can remember last year, he was so proud of what he had achieved.”
Jack tried to stay positive: “I’m not going to get too down on myself. There are a lot of events coming up and it is a good time to be hitting form. I’m definitely doing that. Hopefully, I can nick a title soon, as long as I don’t keep running into Judd in finals!”. (quotes source: WST)
Ding Junhui and Luca Brecel were the other two Grove players involved in the tournament. Judd had beaten Ding by 5-3 in the quarte-finals, whilst Luca had lost by 5-2 to Jack at the last-16 stage.
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