Judd Trump opened his Masters campaign with a ruthless 6-2 win over Ding Junhui at Alexandra Palace on Wednesday afternoon, booking a quarter-final meeting with Mark Allen and keeping alive his bid for a third Paul Hunter Trophy.
Playing in the first round of the invitational event, Trump took early control and rarely loosened his grip, repeatedly outscoring Ding despite the Chinese star posting a strong pot success rate. The match was a best-of-11 frames contest and began at 13:00 GMT, with live coverage available on BBC Two and streaming across BBC iPlayer, the BBC Sport website, and the BBC Sport app. A highlights and analysis show, “Masters Snooker Extra,” was scheduled for later that evening.
The key turning point came immediately. Ding had chances to take the opening frame but overran position on the brown, and Trump capitalised to pinch it—a moment that set the tone for a session in which small errors were punished. From there, Trump’s long potting and cue-ball control tightened the match into his preferred rhythm, keeping Ding seated for long spells.
Clinical Trump Leaves Little Room for Ding
Trump’s performance drew praise in the commentary box, with Steve Davis describing the display as “pretty clinical,” highlighting that Trump “didn’t miss anything easy” and that his positional play made the contest look deceptively simple. Davis also noted the scale of the task for Ding, pointing out that even with around 90% pot success, he was still outgunned by Trump’s heavier scoring.
Ding did not go quietly. The 38-year-old produced a break of 98 to take one frame and showed enough in safety exchanges to suggest the contest was not one-sided in quality. In another pivotal spell, Trump drilled in a “brilliant long red” and built a 54 break, only for Ding to respond with a half-century and edge a safety battle on the yellow to pull a frame back. But those flashes were isolated. Trump continued to pile on points and closed out the match at 6-2, maintaining what was described as a striking pattern of 6-2 scorelines at this year’s tournament.
Afterwards, Trump told broadcasters he felt settled, saying he has been “comfortable” recently and remains “full of confidence” after reaching multiple finals this season. He also singled out the venue, calling it his favourite tournament to play and praising the atmosphere at Alexandra Palace, adding that he hoped his next match would not end 6-2.
Form Line, History, and a Quarter-Final Test
The result extends Trump’s recent edge over Ding. Coming in, Trump led their head-to-head 13-9 and had won the previous four meetings, including 6-3 in the 2025 Masters quarter-finals and 6-2 in the UK Championship quarter-finals roughly a month ago. Ding’s record against Trump includes notable wins—among them a 2023 UK Championship semi-final—but he again found Trump’s pace difficult to live with when the Englishman is in full flow.
The win also underlined Trump’s consistency at this event: it was his seventh straight Round of 16 victory at the Masters since 2020. Yet the broader season context remains part of the storyline. Despite being a two-time Masters champion (lifting the trophy in 2019 and 2023), Trump has not won a major title in the 2025–26 campaign, finishing runner-up at the Northern Ireland Open, the UK Championship, and the Champion of Champions. Off the table, he has relocated to Dubai and began the season using a new cue, changes that coincided with some unexpected early exits at the Saudi Arabia Masters and the International Championship.
Ding arrived in London with his own narrative. A Masters debutant back in 2004, he became the first Asian winner of the tournament in 2011. But Alexandra Palace has been a difficult venue since, with a semi-final run in 2019 standing out amid nine first-round exits. This season he has been selective about his schedule, skipping some smaller events, but he reached the UK Championship quarter-finals and had already lifted the International Championship title in 2024, alongside recent last-eight appearances at the Xi’an Grand Prix, UK Championship, and Shanghai Masters.
Trump’s reward is a quarter-final clash with 2018 Masters champion Mark Allen, a matchup that will test whether Wednesday’s sharpness carries into the business end of the week. With Trump describing Ally Pally as his favourite stop on the calendar and the crowd again in full voice, the path toward a potential third Masters crown is now clearly defined—and the snooker world will be watching closely.
