Judd Trump captured a record-tying third German Masters title, defeating China’s Si Jiahui 10-5.
The Englishman won five frames out of six in Sunday’s evening session to claim the 27th ranking event of his career.
Trump, 34, showed his experience to ease away from 21-year-old Si, who was in his first ranking final.
“It’s been an amazing season so far,” said 2019 world champion Trump, after his fourth win from seven finals.
“Every tournament is special when you get to play in front of a crowd like this and lift the trophy, it’s something you remember for the rest of your career.”
Si threatened an upset in Berlin after narrowing the gap to 5-4 with a 123 break in the first frame of the evening, rekindling the form that took him to the World Championship semi-finals last season.
But Trump eased any nerves by replying with two century breaks of his own.
He made runs of 113 and 108 in the 10th and 11th frames, and reeled off three of the next four frames with breaks of more than 50 to seal a comfortable victory.
The world number two tops this season’s prize money list after also winning the English Open, Wuhan Open and Northern Ireland Open.
-
Sign up to to follow snooker news on the BBC app.
Faced with a target of 399 that would have broken various records to go 2-0 up in the series, people were seriously thinking they might do it.
That is a result of what they have done in the past couple of years, chasing down so many big fourth-innings targets.
History and the odds were massively against them doing it again in Visakhapatnam but what they have achieved means the opposition does fear England.
And victories like the first Test in Hyderabad prove the old saying that the game is never over until it’s done is especially true as far as this England side is concerned.
is easy to see where the tourists went wrong in the second Test. They will rue their first innings total of 253 on a decent surface.
If they had scored another 100 runs, as they should have done, it could have changed the game.
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes all made at least 20 and it needed one of them to go on and make the big score, like double centurion Yashasvi Jaiswal did for India.
England have got to make sure when they get in on these surfaces they make it pay.
I’m not going to criticise the way they went down on day four because they didn’t have any option but to play positively.
If you just prod about, with variable bounce and the ball spinning, you’re going to get out.
You can look at one or two of the dismissals, such as Joe Root’s swipe to be caught at point – he will not want to see that shot again. It was premeditated and Root is a better player than that.
Stokes’ run-out was strange – there was a little hesitation but then he seemed to be coasting. I don’t know if he was just a bit jagged from all the hard work of captaincy but he was a bit switched off.
Saying that, Stokes led England brilliantly, with his field placements putting pressure on the batsmen.
He kept men up but not to the extent that he did in the first Test. He got the balance much better in this game, while having to manage that young attack, with Root off the field because of a blow to his finger.
Stokes is a superb captain and he must be an absolute pleasure to play under. He plays the game with a smile on this face, all the players clearly enjoy it too.
The young spinners – Tom Hartley, Rehan Ahmed and debutant Shoaib Bashir – are so raw.
The hardest thing you learn, in particular as a spinner because your margin of error is much smaller than a quicker bowler, is that landing six balls in the same spot, time after time, to this level of batsman is seriously demanding. Yet, they are doing really well.
England never allowed India to get away, apart from Jaiswal, who was head and shoulders above any other batsman in this Test, despite a nice and important century personally for Shubman Gill.
England must continue to prey on the problems in India’s batting line-up.
The tourists’ attitude has been very good. You can’t get downbeat playing on tricky surfaces.
Body language is very important in all sport but particularly cricket. England’s has been very good and shoulders have not slumped.
Stokes threw his hands out in frustration when he was bowled by one that kept low from Bumrah in the first innings, but otherwise there hasn’t been gesticulating when they have got a decent or unplayable ball.
They accept the fact it is going to be difficult and are getting on with it.
Half the battle of playing well in India is actually enjoying being there and taking on the challenges posed in a positive way.
Their trip to Abu Dhabi now, before the third Test in Rajkot that starts on 15 February, is not a bad idea.
People spoke about them travelling there in the build-up instead of playing a warm-up game or training in India but they won the first Test.
Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum take gambles but they often work. Who can argue with it after they w
-