Mark Allen added his name to the illustrious list of players to have won one of Snooker's triple crown events on Sunday night when he overcame Kyren Wilson 10-7 to win the Masters title in London.
The Northern Irishman was the first from his country to win a triple crown event for 31 years since Dennis Taylor won the 1987 Masters.
For Allen though, a week that includes victories over Ronnie O'Sullivan and John Higgins is fulfilment of the promise shown when he made it to the 2011 UK Championship final and lost out to Judd Trump. Having been in 7 full ranking finals, winning three and picking five "minor ranking" European Tour titles, Allen had admitted earlier in the week that he had not achieved as much in the game as he thought he would have.
Given the way he has been playing this season, and the way he played to capture this title, I think the floodgates could now open for Allen and ranking titles may be slightly easier to come by.
I think it is quite telling that he turned to good friend Shaun Murphy for advice during the final against Wilson, with Murphy winning this title in 2015 and being able to pass on his wisdom to a man in Allen who had not got the same experience of what it took to get over the line in one of snooker's three majors.
Now that this experience is in the bank, a lot of titles could follow for the heavy-scoring 31-year-old who should really only be at the beginning of his peak years, especially when you look at what O'Sullivan, Higgins and Mark Williams have achieved into their 40's.
As for Kyren Wilson, he has a very long time left in the game and the experience of reaching his first major final will keep him moving in the right direction. The loss may hurt for a while, but the fact he has reached three finals this season already shows how talented, hard-working and determined the 2015 Shanghai Masters champion is.
The qualities he has shown suggest that he could become a multiple triple crown event winner himself, and along with Allen, I think he will be a certain contender when attention turns to Sheffield in April for the World Championships.
Wilson's comeback against Judd Trump in the semi-finals was one of the great Masters comebacks - though the man on the wrong end of that match is beginning to develop an interesting trend in these major events.
Judd Trump's only triple crown event win to date came back at the 2011 UK Championships and given the way he had risen to the top so quickly, after breaking through early in the same year, many would have expected him to add to that tally multiple times by now.
However, he has never been to a Masters final, has only reached one UK Championship final since winning in 2011 and has not reached a second World final, after his run to the finals of the 2011 event.
He has though been to three Masters semi-finals now, losing in 2012 6-3 to Neil Robertson, 6-4 to Barry Hawkins in 2016 and now from 5-2 up to Wilson this year.
In the World Championships he lost out in the semi-finals in 2013 17-11 to Ronnie O'Sullivan, and at the last four stage in 2015 17-16 to Stuart Bingham, as well as losing 7 of the last nine frames in 2014 to fall 13-11 to Neil Robertson.
2014 was also the year of Trump's only triple crown final since the 2011 victory, where he ran through the field to meet O'Sullivan in the UK Championship final and came from 9-4 down to force a decider, before losing 10-9. Aside from that, Trump has played in five other UK's since 2011 and only gone beyond the last 32, when he lost in the last 16 to Allen in 2013.
At the age of 28, he still has plenty of time left to add to his major title and has still won six ranking titles in the six years since his 2011 UK win, but with a trend of semi-final losses in majors starting to emerge, it is time for Trump to find a way of reaching the next level. Whether that is by returning to the all out attack style that served him well in his break through year of 2011 instead of trying to tone it down, or by looking at his overall shot selection and game management, that saw him take on shots like a ludicrous plant in the deciding frame against Wilson on Saturday.
After this week though, I can certainly see Allen and Wilson adding to their trophy cabinets again in the very near future. For those that have watched either player throughout the first half of the season and in years previous, their good runs this week are no one-off and will surely be repeated multiple times before they put their cues away for the last time.
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