Neil Robertson raced to his second Masters title with a demolition of Barry Hawkins in Sunday's final, running out a convincing 10-4 winner.
Both players were forced to come through gruelling semi-finals that went the distance on Saturday, and Hawkins appeared to run out of steam in the concluding session a day later, losing five of the six frames played as Robertson took control of the match in the manner he had promised earlier in the day.
Twice Robertson appeared set to burst clear in the afternoon, only for Hawkins to peg him back, and resuming only 5-3 in arrears, the 2016 runner-up would have been hopeful he could take the game to his opponent just as he had done against the likes of Mark Selby and Judd Trump in the previous rounds.
In the end, Robertson just had too many guns, growing visibly stronger as his opponent weakened and finishing with a flurry of big breaks that treated a typically passionate London crowd to more of the wonderful snooker they have witnessed in one the most memorable Masters in recent years.
Upon the resumption, Robertson appeared determined to make an early statement and a break of 50 in frame nine did just that, only for Hawkins to hit straight back with a timely run of 69 that hinted at a long night ahead.
But that would be Hawkins' only moment of cheer and when Robertson cleared the table for his second century of the day in frame 13, he found himself within a single frame of glory.
He needed two bites of the cherry to finish the job in the following frame, but by now Hawkins was out of punches, and another miss from distance allowed Robertson to canter over the winning line in much more comfortable fashion than his epic English Open final defeat of John Higgins earlier in the season.
This time Robertson was able to savour the moment, and when Hawkins greeted his conqueror with a warm hand shake, the job was complete – a second Masters crown and a sixth Triple Crown victory for one of the modern-day greats.
“I’m so happy to win this wonderful title again,” Robertson told the BBC as he held young daughter Penelope in his arms.
“This was my first title I won after (son) Alexander was born.
“I always wanted a mini-repeat with Penelope here as well. She’s about the same age actually, so I’m happy for that.
“I was disappointed when we went into lockdown again and it’s just so fantastic to hear London cheer again for a snooker tournament.
“I tried to forget about it (the semi-final) and reset to play Barry.
“Then I got about 300 text messages from people saying they’d never seen anything like it.
“Every person I met coming into the venue said: ‘What about yesterday?’
“I said: ‘Hey, I’m trying to forget about that and concentrate on the final.'”
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