German Masters
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Big names dominate on day one of German Masters

Judd Trump and Kyren Wilson were among the marquee names to make it through their opening tests as the 2025 German Masters commenced on Monday.

The latter was pushed by Hong Kong’s Cheung Ka Wai but eventually had enough experience to dispatch of the rookie with a 5-3 scoreline.

Reigning champion Trump had a slightly easier time of it, beating David Grace 5-2 while contributing a high break of 122.

The world numbers one and two are each bidding to claim a third ranking title of what has already been a strong campaign for both.

Shaun Murphy also comfortably reached the last 32 courtesy of a 5-0 victory over Liam Graham.

The Magician oozed with confidence on the back of his Masters glory at the Alexandra Palace earlier this month, compiling breaks of 108, 106, 79, and 55.

Murphy has never won the German Masters – his best being an appearance in the 2015 final where he lost to Mark Selby – but he would love to get his hands on the Brandon Parker Trophy, named in honour of his former friend and manager.

John Higgins, Neil Robertson, Zhang Anda, and Barry Hawkins were among the other high-profile contenders to safely advance, meanwhile.

Higgins prevailed from a high-scoring affair with Mark Davis by a two-frame margin, while Robertson lost just a single frame in his 5-1 defeat of Polish rookie Antoni Kowalski.

Zhang and Hawkins were tested significantly more, the top 16 players managing to emerge unscathed with respective 5-4 triumphs over Graeme Dott and Alfie Burden.

Even though a lot of the bigger names were able to get off to a positive start in the ranking tournament, there were still a few notable upsets.

Chris Wakelin suffered a surprise 5-2 reverse against Hammad Miah and Stuart Bingham was thrashed 5-0 by Thepchaiya Un-Nooh.

David Gilbert and former runner-up Stephen Maguire also bowed out with disappointing defeats to Ben Woollaston and Joe O’Connor respectively.

World Championship finalist Jak Jones recorded a 5-3 win over Allan Taylor, however, with Zhou Yuelong and Robert Milkins progressing in the competition as well.

The 2025 German Masters was unfortunately hit with another withdrawal as Hossein Vafeai pulled out, gifting Yuan Sijun a spot in the next round.

The Iranian’s no-show adds to a growing list of absentees that also includes Ronnie O’Sullivan, Ding Junhui, Dominic Dale, and He Guoqiang.

The first round at the Tempodrom in Berlin continues on Tuesday with the likes of Mark Selby, Mark Allen, and Mark Williams in action.


2025 German Masters

Monday’s Results

Round of 64
John Higgins 5-3 Mark Davis
Neil Robertson 5-1 Antoni Kowalski
Kyren Wilson 5-3 Cheung Ka Wai
Hammad Miah 5-2 Chris Wakelin
Zhou Yuelong 5-2 Artemijs Zizins
Robert Milkins 5-4 Xu Si
Zhang Anda 5-4 Graeme Dott

Ben Woollaston 5-0 David Gilbert
Joe O’Connor 5-1 Stephen Maguire
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 5-0 Stuart Bingham
Jak Jones 5-3 Allan Taylor
Judd Trump 5-2 David Grace
Barry Hawkins 5-4 Alfie Burden

Tuesday’s order of play

9am UTC
Mark Selby vs Liu Hongyu
Elliot Slessor vs Lyu Haotian
Si Jiahui vs Ken Doherty
Pang Junxu vs Anthony McGill

2pm UTC
Mark Allen vs David Lilley
Wu Yize vs Jackson Page
Jack Lisowski vs Alexander Ursenbacher
Xiao Guodong vs Fan Zhengyi
Luca Brecel vs Jiang Jun

7pm UTC
Ryan Day vs Ricky Walden
Gary Wilson vs Daniel Wells
Noppon Saengkham vs Jimmy Robertson
Mark Williams vs Aaron Hill

Click here for the latest scores and results
(snooker.org)


Featured photo credit: WST

4 Comments

  1. Daniel White

    Stephen Maguire really seems to have “gone out”. Another bad defeat for ‘ball run’ as well. On the other hand the impressive form is continuing for The Magician, and for the top two in the world of course; Robertson is still gaining ground back towards top 16 ranking status and performance status.

  2. The 2019/20 renaissance from Maguire has proved a false dawn. I’m beginning to wonder if he can ever have any sort of purple patch again. He’s the type of character that could even retire on the spot.

  3. It was a great start to the event. I wasn’t here last year, so it was my first time to see all 7 tables in use, for both sessions.

    The seating was unreserved, which allowed us to (officially) move around different tables. There were some close matches, and also some surprisingly one-sided matches. It’s a strange arrangement of tables, and some players probably don’t settle, and might have difficulty with the lighting, and the closeness of the crowd on the 6 outside tables.

    The 3pm start gave me a few hours to do some Berlin touring, and a local Maracay cafe is where players, media and some fans tend to hang out between sessions.

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