Lisowski suffers defeat in final again following Masters withdrawal
JACK Lisowski has revealed how a three-day drinking binge helped him shrug off the shock of a positive coronavirus test and keep his confidence at an all-time high.
The 29-year-old from Churchdown was led out of his Milton Keynes hotel after testing positive for the virus on the eve of his expected first round match at the Masters earlier this month.
It was a bitter blow for the world number 14, who had played some of the best snooker of his career in pushing Judd Trump to the brink in the final of the World Grand Prix before Christmas.
Lisowski told the PA news agency: “I just went on a blow-out for the first few days.
“I thought, I’ll just trying drinking and kill the virus. I don’t even drink. I’d worked so hard for the tournament and I was going to go crazy. I did it and I’m still here and I feel like Superman now.”
Lisowski was mostly symptomatic for his period with the illness, and intimated that his previous experiences with ill health - he beat Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in his teens - put his latest setback into perspective.
“My game is as good as it’s ever been and I really believed I could have had a good Masters,” he added. “I’d never been as confident as I am now, so I was absolutely gutted.
“But I’ve definitely had worse news. It was weird someone telling you you’re ill and you’re not in control - it was like deja vu. But this virus has been serious for so many people, so in the end I was lucky.”
Lisowski recovered in time for the German Masters and beat Louis Heathcote, Luca Brecel, Stuart Bingham and Tom Ford to reach the final - but was soundly beaten 9-2 by world number one Trump.
Trump became the first man to successfully defend the German Maasters title as he was again too strong for
Lisowski, having beaten him in the World Grand Prix final before Christmas.
It was not a classic contest, with Trump’s match-clinching 119 the only century break of the clash.
But Trump’s incredible run of form continued as he clinched his fourth ranking event of the season, and the world number one puts it down to hard work.
“I didn’t really set any targets, I just wanted to enjoy my snooker and that is what I have done,” he said on Eurosport after the win.
“This is my sixth ranking event final this season, incredible. It’s down to hard work, you can’t give yourself any time off. I scraped through this week.
“Today was tough, me and Jack was a bit of a struggle. It is hard playing each other, it is hard to really relax and get comfortable.
“It is flattering to be 9-2, there were a lot of close frames that could have gone either way. It was a tough game, even though it was 9-2, it could have been 6-3 or 5-4 really.”
But for Lisowski it was a familiar tale of defeat to Trump following his loss in December.
“It didn’t really happen for me today, I knew I had to win the close frames and I lost a few of them,” he said.
“It wasn’t really happening for me, and Judd is so comfortable, he was in cruise control. It’s tough to be on the end of.
“I don’t feel I played that badly but he has just trashed me 9-2 so it is back to the drawing board.
“It has been a great week for me, I am going in the right direction, back-toback finals. I won’t get too down on myself, it is a good time to be hitting form, hopefully I can get into another final and not come up against Judd.
“He is playing the best snooker ever and he is turning into the best player ever.”