Last season, the lockdown nearly trapped the players in Gibraltar, with Judd winning the title in front of nobody and everyone involved struggling to find flights to get back home. It was a shock back then, one year on, it has become the “new normal”. One thing however hasn’t changed: the winner. Judd defended his tithe – in Milton Keynes – beating Jack Lisowski by 4-0 in the final.

The tournament was played from 1 to 7 March 2021. It saw the return to professional competition of the seven times World Champion, Stephen Hendry, nearly nine years after retiring from the sport, following his defeat to Stephen Maguire in the QF at the Crucible in April 2012.

This was Judd’s 22nd ranking title. He is now joint fifth – with Mark Williams – on the all-time list. This was the third time that Judd and Jack were meeting in a final this season, Judd winning each time. It was actually the first time that the same two players had met three times in a final in a single season.

Judd was pretty happy with his performance throughout the tournament and praised his opponent:

“I’m pretty happy with how I played throughout the tournament. I played pretty solidly,” said 31-year-old Trump.

“I had a tough semi-final against Matt Selt, as he was playing some brilliant stuff. I was just solid again in the final against Jack. I know how good he is, it is about getting that quick start and putting him under pressure. He only really missed one ball and I capitalised on every mistake.

“All he can do is keep putting himself in that position. Sooner or later he will get me on a bad day, someone else on a bad day or just play out of his skin. Every event is a massive learning curve for him. He knows each time he has to go away and up his standard until he reaches that level where he wants to be at, the best in the world.

“I didn’t even consider winning 22 ranking titles two or three years ago. I was winning one or two events a year and if I finished my career with 20 or 25 events I would have been over the moon. Fast forward three years and 14 events later and I’ve taken the game by storm. It is important for me to keep it up as much as possible.”

(Source: WST)

Neil Robertson’s poor run since he won the UK championship in December 2020 continued as he lost in the first round to Lei Peifan
Luca Brecel went one round further but lost to Shaun Murphy.
Ali Carter reached the last 32. He went out to Thepchaiya Un-Nooh.

All detailed results can be found on snooker.org