The latest stop of the snooker season saw the action head to the Stadthalle Fürth in Germany for the 2022 edition of the BetVictor European Masters. With six of the current top ten in the rankings cueing up, we looked set for a cracking week of action on the baize – and the tournament certainly didn’t disappoint. But who would be hitting the snooker news headlines for all of the right reasons?
World number 3 Judd Trump started as the hot favourite for the event and was the most popular choice with bettors using the most popular betting apps. The 2018/19 World Champion certainly made an encouraging start in easing past Ashley Hugill, Andrew Higginson and Farakh Ajab, only to then come unstuck in his quarterfinal match – going down 5-3 to eventual runner-up Barry Hawkins.
In the end, it was left to Englishman Kyren Wilson to lift the trophy and bag a fifth career ranking success, following victories in the Shanghai Masters, German Masters, Paul Hunter Classic and Championship League.
Having previously made it no further than the quarterfinal stage of the tournament, Kettering native Wilson saw off world number 42 Lyo Haotian 5-1, world number 25 Jimmy Roberston 5-2, and former world champ and current number 9 Shaun Murphy 5-3 on his way through to the quarters. Keeping up the momentum with a 5-2 verdict over emerging talent Si Jiahui, Wilson then faced what would prove to be his stiffest challenge when edging a 6-5 thriller against Ali Carter in the semi-final.
The final itself would prove to be much more routine as both players, and particularly Barry Hawkins struggled to find a smooth rhythm in a scrappy encounter. Racing into a 3-0 lead in the opening session, the match then briefly looked to be in the balance as Hawkins reduced the arrears to just one frame. However back came Wilson with a three-frame salvo to take a 6-2 lead into the break and put the pressure firmly on the world number 11.
The interval did little to alter the pattern of play, with the players splitting the first two frames, before “The Warrior” sealed the deal with his greater safety play to run out a comfortable 9-3 winner and pick up the £80,000 winners share of the £422,000 prize fund.
For Wilson, this was certainly a welcome result, with the 30-year-old suffering a little following a slightly disappointing 2021/22 campaign, and getting to grips with a new cue. The world number 8 stated in the aftermath, “To be honest I was struggling a bit, down in the dumps coming here, changing cues, so my dad and his best friend came out and we had some great fun.” For Hawkins meanwhile, it was a disappointing end to what had been a largely positive tournament overall. “The Hawk” reflecting that, “It was a struggle all day. Kyren stuck to his task and picked me off. It was a terrible day but a good week I suppose.”