JACK LISOWSKI was in a daze at the Northern Ireland Open snooker final last week as he potted the balls that secured his first-ever ranking title, 15 years after joining the professional tour.

It was one of those moments where a player has to rely on some kind of autopilot to swing the cue at the ball and hope the years of practice, muscle memory, and instinct can carry them through.

The 34-year-old turned pro in 2010, but had never won a ranking event on the tour, despite appearing in six major finals.

“I feel like I’m going to pass out,” Lisowski told Abigail Davies in an interview for TNT Sports immediately following his victory.

“I’ve never felt like this in my life; it feels so surreal. I feel like I’m dreaming. I’ve thought about this moment since I was six or seven years old.”

Lisowski and his opponent in the final, Judd Trump, two years his senior, have been good friends since they were teenagers.

The pair were together at the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong in March when Lisowski found out that his father had passed away suddenly.

“He’s been my best friend since 14,” Lisowski said of Trump.

“He was there with me when we were in a restaurant in Hong Kong about eight months ago when I got the message about my dad.”

Turning to address his friend, Lisowski continued: “You’ve been a better friend than I could have ever asked for in the last eight months.

“He’s one of the greatest snooker players of all time already, but he’s been the best friend I could ever wish for.

“You’re the closest thing I’m ever going to have to a brother, and I love you.”

The pair had met in three previous finals, the World Grand Prix in 2020, and the German Masters and Gibraltar Open in 2021, with Trump coming out on top on each occasion, convincingly so in those 2021 events, but this one had some extra emotion to it.

Lisowski is a talented, attacking player who is great to watch and has long been tipped as someone who could win plenty in the game if he could find some consistency.

He had shown the kind of form throughout this year’s Northern Ireland Open that is expected of him more often, defeating tough opponents Mark Selby, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Kyren Wilson, and Zhou Yuelong on his way to the final.

Lisowski put much of this down to his cue action, aided by a new cue tip that he praised for improving his long-pot success and confidence on the shot at the tournament in Belfast.

Regardless of form, technique, or cueing confidence, a high-pressure final has the potential to see all of that go out of the window, especially for a player with a reputation as the best never to win a ranking title, a nearly man, looking to win a first in 15 years of trying.

In the end, the final was a scrappy affair with only one century break made — Lisowski’s 112 in frame six — but entertaining nevertheless.

The match went all the way to a deciding frame in which Lisowski triumphed by taking chances when Trump was unable to.

“Can I say as well to you guys, I’ve never played in a… I’m genuinely gonna remember this moment for the rest of my life, no matter what happens,” Lisowski added, taking the mic and addressing the crowd, somehow holding himself together.

“It’s probably all downhill from here,” he joked, “but thank you for coming out tonight and for supporting us, you guys are unbelievable, thank you so much.”

The 2025/26 snooker season has been underway since June, but is now approaching the time of year when expectations for the big events can begin to be assessed.

The fact that there have been 15 different finalists in the eight finals played, with only Shawn Murphy appearing in two, shows how competitive the field currently is at the top level of professional snooker.

The first triple crown event, the UK Championship, gets underway at the Barbican Centre in York at the end of November.

It’s around this time that the build-up to the big events in the second half of the season, including the other triple crown events, the Masters, and the World Championship, begins.

Only players in the top 16 are invited to compete in the Masters, while the top 16 are also guaranteed qualification for the World Championship proper. Lisowski is still outside that bunch, but moved up from 29th to 24th following his win in Belfast last week.

Trump remains number one on the rankings but has yet to win a title this season, with the Northern Ireland Open being his first final of the season.

Current world champion Zhao Xintong, meanwhile, is yet to reach a final in his first full season back on the tour.

The season continues this week with the International Championship in Nanjing, China.