Congratulations to Judd Trump, the 2023 Masters Champion!

Judd won the prestigious Masters for the second time at Alexandra Palace, beating Mark Williams by 10-8 in a high-quality final.

The tournament was played from the 8th of January to the 15th of January 2023, in Alexandra Palace, in London. All detailed results can be found on snooker.org.

Judd had struggled for most of the tournament and was one ball away from going out in the first round, but showed tremendous battling qualities throughout. He was proud of his tenacity and thrilled to win. Here is what he had to say after his victory (source WST):

“This is more special than winning the Masters in 2019, as it’s the first Triple Crown event I have won twice,”
“Everyone has been writing me off, I have read a lot of stuff about my best days being behind me. So to win this by digging in and beating someone as good as Mark is incredible. I have a long time left, hopefully I can have the longevity of the likes of Mark, and keep winning these tournaments.
“There’s a big difference between winning and losing these finals in terms of your CV. When you get there you have to get over the line, because there are only three a season. Over a career you might only play in 45 or 50, so to win four already is a big achievement. This is a big win and it feels well overdue.
“At 8-7 I missed a couple of chances and he just didn’t take the chance to go 9-7, which might have been game over. He played a very attacking game and maybe that came back to bite him in the last couple of frames. At 8-8, I went to the toilet and splashed water on my face, came back out and played the way I should be playing. I felt good at the end, I wasn’t nervous. I should have lost three of my four games this week, I was just able to battle through. I felt as if I was out of the tournament so many times.”

The other Grove players involved in the tournament were Mark Selby and Neil Robertson. Neil was the defending Champion. Both went out in the first round.