James Cooper has assessed the draw and recommends two outright selections in the German Masters.
Snooker betting tips: German Masters
1pt e/w Jack Lisowski at 33/1 (Star Sports and Bet MGM, ½ 1,2)
1pt e/w Barry Hawkins at 33/1 (General, ½ 1,2)
In a sport where we are used to seeing domination from the game’s elite, nothing highlights the strength in depth more these days than 11 different ranking event winners from as many tournaments in the 2025/26 season.
Over to Germany we go, to the now very familiar Tempodrom in Berlin, which commences on Monday with 14 of the 16 held over ties (Wu Yize and Chang Bingyu do not play) to ensure the best in the world participate in this special auditorium.
Since its revival in 2011, the German Masters trophy hasn’t been circulated quite as freely as that, with Kyren Wilson the third double winner of the event, while Judd Trump has emerged victorious on three occasions.
There is plenty on the line this week with Crucible seedings, Players Championship positions and valuable ranking points on offer for those slightly further down the chain.
I have to say, I don’t think the 2026 Masters will go down as a vintage one, not that Kyren Wilson will care one iota.
A crazy octet of 6-2 opening round scores hardly set the pulse racing and while Wilson v Neil Robertson was a cracker and John Higgins produced a couple of memorable comebacks, he seemed to run out of steam in what was a limp final.
We’re in best-of-nine frames territory up to the semi-final stage this week and it’s a format leaving precious little margin for error.
Judd Trump heads the betting at 7/2 and he looks in a nice section of the draw in the top part of section three.
Trump has come in for criticism in some corners and while that is to be expected given he’s lost his last five finals, it’s not altogether fair.
His staggering record in shorter-format tournament over a fairly prolonged period was never going to be sustainable and with his cue issues behind him, Trump remains the most consistent player in the world.
Given the aforementioned depth in the game now, that price on Trump isn’t particularly appealing, though and from the same quarter, I’m happy to side with his great friend JACK LISOWSKI at the 33/1 available in a couple of places.
Snooker is a sport littered with great human stories and surely very few would have begrudged Lisoswki his maiden ranking title his ability more than deserved in Belfast.
His form figures since that emotional victory aren’t anything to get carried away, though he beat Ronnie O’Sullivan in a decider in the International Championship and Lisoswki can’t be judged too harshly on defeats to Barry Hawkins (6-4 despite making three centuries) and Kyren Wilson 4-3 in the Champion of Champions.
A couple of surprising reversals followed but Lisowski was a smooth winner in qualifying for this at Ponds Forge and has kept his eye in via the Championship League in recent days.
His most likely route to winning Q3 is Xiao Guodong, John Higgins and Judd Trump which is by no means as easy as it could have been but in short, Lisowski has the monkey off his back now and given his swashbuckling game, he’s always appealed as an excellent short-format proposition.
The participation of Ronnie O’Sullivan will affect the shape of Q4 and the 40/1 available on Ali Carter would look big were the Rocket to swerve this assignment but at this stage, the other bet I like is in the other half of the draw, with BARRY HAWKINS appealing at 33/1.
When assessing his season so far prior to the Masters, Hawkins had slightly surpassed his wins over expected for the season despite failing to reach a semi-final (trio of quarter-final appearances).
A 6-2 defeat against John Higgins at the Alexandra Palace was disappointing but in truth his opponent didn’t give him too many chances through exemplary long potting.
Some of the tables have played on the generous side this season but the Hawkins scoring prowess looks as good as it has even been based on his 50+ per frame ratio and Q1 now looks a shade easier than it did without Wu Yize lining up.
You’d expect Hawkins to get the better of veteran Mark Davis and should he do that, Zhang Anda doesn’t appear to be playing as well as he did during that real purple patch a couple of years ago.
Kyren Wilson is the most likely last-16 opponent but it’s a bit churlish to assume things will run smoothly for the top players in these short matches so predicting opponents down the line can be dangerous and on balance, a quality operator such as Hawkins looks a shade too big here.
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