Shaun Murphy crowned Masters snooker king for second time at the Alexandra Palace


Murphy’s triumph in North London sees him lift The Paul Hunter Hunter Trophy for the second time and bank the £350,000 top prize. This is the fourth Triple Crown event title of his illustrious career, and it comes a decade on from his third when he triumphed in this tournament in 2015.
En route to the final, 42-year-old Murphy dispatched another Wilson - on this occasion, Gary - in round one before dismissing fellow Masters title winners Neil Robertson and Mark Allen in the quarter and semi-finals respectively. In the latter contest, Murphy compiled only the sixth maximum 147 break in Masters history.
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'The Magician' went into the title showdown with fellow Englishman Wilson holding a strong head-to-head record over him, and having won their two previous encounters in a final which included their most recent meeting on the professional circuit when Murphy won the 2023 Tour Championship title following a 10-7 final victory.
However, Wilson is a different proposition these days since claiming the sport's ultimate prize last year at the Crucible Theatre. Following that momentous day in Sheffield, Wilson has collected two further ranking event titles, and went into Sunday's final full of confidence having eliminating world number one Judd Trump the night before.
Murphy settled down first in the two-session final; a 94 assisted him in winning the opener before he doubled his advantage with frame two.
A 69 helped Wilson get on the board, and it seemed like the world number two would level before missing a red whilst on a run of 61 in frame four, allowing Murphy the opportunity to craft a classy counter clearance of 65 to pinch it on the final black and go into the mid-session interval 3-1 up.
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The lead was extended to three frames on resumption, although Wilson (53 break) pulled one back with frame six. However, a focused and fluent Murphy fashioned contributions of 134 and 116 in back-to-back frames to end the afternoon session in firm control of the tie at 6-2 up.
Several hours later, Wilson (95) twice reduced the gap by a frame but Murphy (125 and 66) responded both times as he kept his four-frame buffer as he went into the final intermission 8-4 up.
After the break, though, a determined Wilson began to rally, stringing together multiple frames for the first time during the day as efforts of 78 and 65 aided him in a three-frame run that got him to within one of his opponent at 8-7 down.
Albeit, Murphy was not to be denied. He stopped Wilson's sequence in frame 16 (55) to reach the hill before finishing in style with a break of exactly 100 - his fourth century of the match and his seventh of this year's competition - to become a two-time Masters champion.
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In total, Murphy pocketed £365,000 - a new biggest payday for his career - as he also collects the tournament's highest break bonus of £15,000 because of his 147 at the final four stage.
The past 18 months on the baize have proved tricky at times for Murphy; this Masters triumph is his first win on the World Snooker Tour since capturing the ranked version of Championship League Snooker in July 2023.
Somewhat bizarrely - given his supreme form at the Ally Pally throughout the event - Murphy is provisionally positioned outside the world's top 16 on the 'Race to the Crucible' ranking list and may need to qualify for the televised stages of this season's World Championship. But on this current form, you wouldn't put it past Murphy to get himself out of that predicament and collect more trophyware this season.
For results from the 2025 Masters, please visit here.
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