EARNED THE HARD WAY
Masters finals are usually a box office heavyweight fight anyway, but I felt something very particular about this one: whoever lost the final would've been so frustrated.
Higgins's defeat is his fifth consecutive final loss since he won his fourth world title in 2011. That includes three consecutive finals in Sheffield (2017/18/19). He's a great and he's been great for the last 15 years, but it must hurt having no Triple Crown silverware to show for it, having got so close so many times.
He's become the oldest Triple Crown finalist ever, John. And he's not finished. But this final will certainly not help his self-belief in those big events.
As for Kyren, it was so deserved. The trophy couldn't go to a nicer and more dedicated player. But it would hurt had he lost, it would hurt a lot.
The Masters was where he made his first Triple Crown final in 2018, and he was in tears after defeat to Mark Allen. But he only built on from that - made the semifinals of the Crucible that year and progressed one step at a time, being a finalist in 2020 and a champion in 2024.
Since that world title he's been relentless, four ranking titles in the season to follow a maiden World Championship was ubelievable, but it was that Masters final against Shaun Murphy that hurt him. He really wanted to add another Triple Crown to his CV. And now he has.
Wilson is now a force in the sport and I must admit that early on I didn't see such a high potential on him. His dedication, self-confidence, belief and determination have taken him so far.
Before he won the Shanghai Masters in 2015, Kyren had been relegated from the tour after a first spell with very few wins.
You have to have a lot of talent just to make it on tour, but his junior career might not have been as impressive as it usually is from players who eventually become as good as he later did. I imagine how much resilience and family support he needed after dropping off the tour at first.
But as I said, self-confidence has always been one of his main strengths. He never gave up and all of a sudden he beat Ding Junhui, Mark Allen and Judd Trump en route to that maiden ranking title in China. And Kyren never looked back since, he's now World Number 2 with 10 ranking titles and several major invitational trophies to his name, along with five maximum 147 breaks and over 550 career centuries.
If you can take anything away from Kyren Wilson and John Higgins, that is never to give up.
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