Masters 2025: Why Ronnie O'Sullivan, Stephen Hendry, Cliff Thorburn and Paul Hunter form an exclusive club of champions
By Desmond Kane
Published 12/01/2025 at 09:31 GMT
React to this story
The Masters is second only to the World Championship in terms of prestige, with snooker's greatest non-ranking event lifted by every household name in the modern history of the sport. A total of 16 world champions from the Crucible era have all lifted the Masters since its inaugural staging in 1975 with only nine winners failing to go on to lift the world title at some point in their careers.
No Filter: Behind the scenes as O'Sullivan wins record eighth Masters crown
Video credit: TNT Sports
The Masters will this year mark its 50th anniversary in London having provided 25 different champions since 1975, 11 multiple winners and six different venues with every modern great of the game lifting the trophy, including Steve Davis, Alex Higgins, Jimmy White and Ray Reardon.
Ronnie O'Sullivan and Stephen Hendry have enjoyed the longest periods of dominance at the elite invitational event with an astonishing 14 titles claimed between the seven-time world champions, over a 35-year period between 1989 and 2024.
O'Sullivan and Hendry also form a unique quartet alongside Cliff Thorburn and Paul Hunter as the only players in the history of the Masters to successfully defend the title the following year.
Canada's 1980 world champion Thorburn became the first man to win back-to-back Masters in 1985 and 1986 at the old Wembley Conference Centre before Hendry claimed five straight titles between 1989 and 1993 and a sixth in 1996.
Hunter would become the first man this century to achieve the feat in 2001 and 2002 before capturing his third in 2004 to emulate Thorburn and Davis before Mark Selby later joined them as one of only four three-time winners.
"I'm so happy to have won the match, especially to retain the title," said Hunter. "Only Stephen Hendry and Cliff Thorburn have won it in successive years. So I'm up there with them."
The Leeds icon remarkably won all his Masters 10-9 in final-frame deciders against Fergal O'Brien (2001), Mark Williams (2002) and O'Sullivan (2004).
Hunter's brief but resounding success at the competition before his premature death at the age of only 27 in 2006 saw the Masters title renamed the Paul Hunter Trophy in 2016 in honour of his outstanding achievements.
Despite winning a record eight titles between 1995 and 2024 as the youngest and oldest Masters champion, O'Sullivan's only back-to-back successes curiously came in 2016 and 2017 at the Alexandra Palace - host venue since 2012 after a five-year stay at Wembley Arena.
It is sometimes overlooked that O'Sullivan has also lost six times in the final between 1996 and 2019, being denied by a who's who of the modern game in Hendry, Davis, Hunter, Higgins, Selby and world No. 1 Judd Trump.
O'Sullivan's tournament opener with John Higgins on Sunday before he pulled out on medical grounds would have been a repeat of the 1995 final which saw a 19-year-old O'Sullivan complete a 9-3 win.
- Masters Snooker 2025: Latest scores, results and schedule as Trump, Wilson battle for title
- Trump's £2m chase, Rocket title drought, Crucible's final call? - 5 key storylines in 2025
- Who is the only player in Masters history to make more than one maximum?
The 'Class of 92' greats also contested two other finals with O'Sullivan victorious in 2005 via a 10-3 win, before Higgins gained revenge with a classic 10-9 triumph a year later.
The Masters is littered with magical moments.
It should also be noted that O'Sullivan famously equalled then passed Hendry's all-time century record of 775 at the Masters a decade ago.
This came a year after he produced breaks of 79, 88, 72, 134, 77 and 56 in a 58-minute 6-0 whitewash of Ricky Walden in the quarter-finals that saw O’Sullivan set a historical record of 556 points without reply.
As it is, Higgins will face fellow two-time winner Neil Robertson in another unique generational encounter.
Higgins lifted his first Masters in 1999 with Robertson claiming his second trophy in 2022.
Robertson is 10-8 clear on the career head-to-heads since they first met in 2005, but this incredibly will be their first and possibly final meeting at the Masters.
Meanwhile, 1991 world champion John Parrott has reached the most finals of the Masters without winning it.
Parrott lost three times to a peak Hendry in 1989, 1990 and 1992.
The increase in prize money has also symbolised the significance of the Masters from John Spencer earning £2,000 in 1975, Matthew Stevens capturing £175,000 in 2000 and the 2025 champion set to pick up double that amount with a record £350,000.
While it may not be the World Championship, it remains in a world of its own in professional snooker.
"The crowd here is very respectful," said Shaun Murphy, the 2015 winner. "They are a little more boisterous than the average UK crowd, but that's part of what makes this tournament so special.
"And for the 16 players who are lucky enough to be in the draw every year, it's magic.
"You wouldn't be anywhere else."
Watch and stream the 51st Masters live on Eurosport and discovery+.
Related Topics
Advertisement
Advertisement