The 2026 Masters (officially the 2026 Johnstone's Paint Masters) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 11 to 18 January 2026 at Alexandra Palace in London, England. The second Triple Crown event of the 2025–26 snooker season, following the 2025 UK Championship and preceding the 2026 World Championship, the tournament was the 52nd edition of the Masters, which had been held annually since 1975. It was broadcast by the BBC and TNT Sports domestically, by Eurosport in mainland Europe, by local channels in China and elsewhere in Asia, and by WST Play in all other territories. The winner received £350,000 from a total prize fund of £1,015,000.

The top 16 players in the snooker world rankings, as they stood after the UK Championship, were invited to the event. Ronnie O'Sullivan withdrew on medical grounds and was replaced in the draw by Chris Wakelin, who had been 17th in the world rankings after the UK Championship. Wu Yize and Xiao Guodong made their Masters debuts at the event, where they were among a record five participants from mainland China. Wu reached the semi-finals, the first debutant to do so since Yan Bingtao in 2021.

Shaun Murphy was the defending champion, having defeated Kyren Wilson 10–7 in the 2025 final, but Wu beat him 6–2 in the first round. All eight first-round matches ended in 6–2 scorelines, the odds of which were estimated at 220,000 to 1. John Higgins made a record-extending 32nd Masters appearance and reached the final, becoming the oldest Triple Crown finalist in snooker history, aged . Kyren Wilson reached his third Masters final, where he defeated Higgins 10–6 to win his first Masters title and second Triple Crown title. The final of the event was the last match to feature televised commentary by broadcaster John Virgo, who died 17 days later. The tournament produced 24 century breaks, of which the highest was a 137 by Wu in his first-round match against Murphy.

Overview

The Masters was first held in 1975 for 10 invited players at the West Centre Hotel in London. John Spencer won the inaugural event, defeating Ray Reardon on a in the of the final. The professional snooker tournament, after the World Championship, the Masters has been staged at Alexandra Palace since 2012. In 2016, the Masters trophy was renamed the Paul Hunter Trophy to honour the late champion, who won the title in 2001, 2002, and 2004 before dying of cancer in 2006, aged 27. As of 2026, Ronnie O'Sullivan was the most successful player in the tournament's history, having won the title eight times. He was both the youngest and oldest Masters champion, having won his first title in 1995, aged 19, and his eighth title in 2024, aged 48.

The 2026 edition of the tournament—the 52nd consecutive staging since its inaugural edition in 1975—took place from 11 to 18 January at Alexandra Palace in London, England. It was the second Triple Crown event of the 2025–26 snooker season, following the 2025 UK Championship and preceding the 2026 World Championship. Shaun Murphy was the defending champion, having defeated Kyren Wilson 10–7 in the 2025 final to win his second Masters title.

Format and participants

The top 16 players in the snooker world rankings, as they stood after the 2025 UK Championship, were invited to participate. The first-round draw took place during the final of the UK Championship, where the top eight seeds were drawn at random against players seeded 9 through 16. On 9 January, O'Sullivan withdrew for medical reasons and was replaced in the draw by Chris Wakelin, who had been 17th in the world rankings after the UK Championship. It was the second consecutive year O'Sullivan did not participate, having also withdrawn from the 2025 event.

Wu Yize and Xiao Guodong made their Masters debuts at the tournament, where they joined Ding Junhui, Si Jiahui, and the reigning World Champion Zhao Xintong to make a record total of five players from mainland China. John Higgins made his record-extending 32nd Masters appearance, having featured in the tournament every year since the 1995 edition.

All matches were played as the best of 11 until the final, which was the best of 19 frames, held over two .

Broadcasters and viewership The tournament was broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC and in the UK and Ireland by TNT Sports and Discovery+. It was broadcast in mainland Europe by Eurosport, with streaming coverage on Discovery+ in Germany, Italy, and Austria and on HBO Max in other European territories. It was broadcast in mainland China by CCTV-5, Huya Live, , the CBSA‑WPBSA Academy WeChat Channel, and the CBSA‑WPBSA Academy Douyin. It was broadcast in Hong Kong by Now TV, in Thailand by TrueSports, in Taiwan by Sportcast, in Mongolia by N Sports, in the Philippines by TAP Sports, and in Malaysia and Brunei by Astro SuperSport. In territories where no other coverage was available, the tournament was streamed by WST Play.

For the first three days of the tournament, some viewers, including competitor Mark Williams, reported that the table appeared on their screens as square rather than rectangular. At the beginning of the 14 January afternoon session, BBC commentator John Virgo confirmed that adjustments had been made to the camera angles used for filming. The tournament attracted a peak audience of 2.1 million for the final on the BBC, an increase of 2 percent over the peak audience for the previous year's final. Total domestic viewer hours over the entire tournament were 50.4 million across the BBC and TNT Sports combined, an increase over the 43 million recorded the previous year. The 4.65 million streams recorded on BBC iPlayer represented a 22 percent increase over the previous year's figure.

Prize fund The breakdown of prize money for the event is shown below. In addition, during the 2025–26 season, a player who made two maximum breaks across the four qualifying events—the 2025 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters, the 2025 UK Championship (including qualifiers), the 2026 Masters, and the 2026 World Championship (including qualifiers)—won a bonus of £147,000. O'Sullivan had claimed the bonus earlier in the season by making two 147s at the Saudi Arabia Masters, but it could be won up to two more times, including multiple times by the same player.

Winner: £350,000 Runner-up: £140,000 Semi-finals: £75,000 Quarter-finals: £40,000 Last 16: £25,000 Highest : £15,000

Total: £1,015,000

Summary First round

The first-round matches were played from 11 to 14 January. Facing the defending champion Shaun Murphy, tournament debutant Wu Yize won the first three , making a century break of 137 in frame two. Murphy took frame four, but Wu won frame five on the last to lead 4–1. Murphy won frame six, but Wu took the last two frames for a 6–2 win, his first victory over Murphy. "After the first frame, I felt a bit more relaxed and I totally enjoyed the atmosphere," Wu said afterwards. Murphy, who made a highest break of just 49, said: "I'm very disappointed. I've been working very hard [...] so I didn't expect to play like that and I'm as shocked as anyone." The eighth seed Mark Selby faced the other tournament debutant, Xiao Guodong, who made breaks of 95, 62, 76, and 77 as he won the first four frames. Selby produced breaks of 101 and 76 to win frames five and six, but Xiao took frame seven with a century of 118 after Selby missed a to a . Xiao secured a 6–2 victory in frame eight after Selby missed a along the . "In the first four frames I put [Selby] under pressure and didn't miss many balls," said Xiao afterwards. "But I knew he would come back. The seventh frame was very important and when he missed the blue I made a century. At 4–3 it would have been very different." Selby commented: "If I had won [frame seven] I would have fancied winning the match because I had the momentum. But Xiao did what he did all night, punished my mistakes." The victories by Wu and Xiao marked the first time since the 2009 event that two Masters debutants had won their opening matches.

The sixth seed Mark Williams faced Mark Allen, who had been ill with food poisoning for a week before the tournament. Allen took the opening frame with a 67 break, but Williams won the next two. Allen then produced breaks including 54, 60, 125, and 70 as he won five consecutive frames for a 6–2 victory, beating Williams at the event for the first time and reaching his 11th Masters quarter-final. "I couldn't prepare for this at all as I've been lying in bed all week with food poisoning, so I just thought 'go out there and give my best'. I wouldn't have had much left if it had got much closer," Allen said afterwards. Williams, who made a highest break of just 36, said afterwards that he had "made it easy" for Allen, commenting: "I was pretty poor. It can happen and will happen more. I tried, even though it didn't look like it." Zhao Xintong, the reigning World Champion, made his second Masters appearance, having previously featured at the 2022 event. He faced Gary Wilson, who made a 76 break to win the opening frame. Zhao won four consecutive frames, making breaks of 50, 51, 54, and 72. Wilson won frame six, but Zhao took the next two for a 6–2 victory, his first win at the Masters. "I really enjoyed tonight," Zhao said afterwards. "I heard lot of Chinese fans and I got more confidence from their support." Wilson, who had lost in the first round in all three of his Masters appearances, said he had been "cueing like a bad amateur" and commented: "You go out there wanting to put on some kind of performance and I am just nowhere near the player I should be."

Kyren Wilson, the fourth seed and previous year's runner-up, faced Si Jiahui. Wilson's old cue had been damaged the previous summer, and he subsequently auctioned it for £5,250 to benefit a children's cancer charity. Unable to find a suitable replacement, he had described himself as "close to a mental breakdown" after losing in the first round of the UK Championship; he then acquired a new cue before the 2025 Scottish Open and practiced with it in the lead-up to the Masters. After winning the opening frame, Wilson attempted a maximum break in frame two but missed the 11th , ending the break on 80. Si took frame three with a 97 break and had an opportunity to win frame four from 53 points behind, but Wilson secured the frame after Si missed a black, moving into a 3–1 lead at the mid-session interval. Si won the 34-minute fifth frame after laying a on the last yellow, but Wilson then produced breaks of 59, 101, and 105 to win three consecutive frames, completing a 6–2 victory and reaching his sixth Masters quarter-final. "I felt really strong out there," Wilson said afterwards. "When you can go out and trust your cue and just play the game, it makes my job an awful lot easier. At 3–2, Si was looking dangerous. He has great technique, so it was important to win the next frame."