Masters (snooker)

The Masters is a professional invitational snooker tournament. Held every year since 1975, it is the second longest running tournament behind the World Championship. It is one of the Triple Crown events, and although not a ranking event, it is regarded as one of the most prestigious tournaments on the circuit. The reigning champion is Ronnie O'Sullivan.

The Masters began as an invitational event for 10 top players. The field was expanded to 12 competitors in 1981, and 16 in 1983. Since 1984, the standard invitees have been the top 16 players in the world rankings, with the addition of two or three wild-card places in tournaments held between 1990 and 2010.

Ronnie O'Sullivan and Stephen Hendry hold the record for the most Masters titles, having won the tournament six times each. Cliff Thorburn, Steve Davis, Paul Hunter, and Mark Selby have each won the Masters three times. Alex Higgins, Mark Williams, and John Higgins have each won the title twice.

Three maximum breaks have been made in the history of the tournament, all by overseas players. Canada's Kirk Stevens made the first in 1984, China's Ding Junhui made the second in 2007, and Hong Kong's Marco Fu made the third in 2015.

2003 Masters (snooker)

The 2003 Benson & Hedges Masters was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 2 and 9 February 2003 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England.

Paul Hunter, who was aiming to win his third title in a row lost 3-6 to Mark Williams in the semi-final, before Williams went on to beat Stephen Hendry in the final 10-4 to win his second Masters title. Hendry meanwhile got the highest break of the championship with a 144 against Ken Doherty in his semi-final match. Hendry also failed a 147 during his quarter-final match against local favourite Jimmy White after failing to pot the final pink.

This was the last Masters to be sponsored by Benson & Hedges after the ban on tobacco advertising which came into effect in summer 2003. Regal also needed to end the sponsorship of the Scottish Masters, the Welsh Open and Scottish Open after 2002/2003 season, but Embassy could continue to sponsor the World Championship until 2005.

Field

Defending champion Paul Hunter was the number 1 seed with World Champion Peter Ebdon seeded 2. Places were allocated to the top 16 players in the world rankings. Players seeded 15 and 16 played in the wild-card round against the winner of the qualifying event, Mark Davis (ranked 37), and Steve Davis (ranked 25), who was the wild-card selection. Mark Davis, Quinten Hann and Joe Perry were making their debuts in the Masters.

1983 Masters (snooker)

The 1983 Benson & Hedges Masters was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between from Sunday 23rd January to Sunday 30th January 1983 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England. The event was increased to 16 players and extended from 6 to 8 days. Although there were 16 players they were not the top 16 ranked players that would compete in the following years. BBC Television coverage did not start until 26th January and so only two of the eight first round matches were televised.

Cliff Thorburn of Canada became the first overseas player to win the competition beating Ray Reardon in the final to win the first of his three titles. The first round match between Bill Werbeniuk and Alex Higgins made a record crowd at the Conference Centre of 2,876. The highest break of the tournament was 128 made by Terry Griffiths.

Field

For the first time there were 16 players in the event. Alex Higgins, the World Champion was the number 1 seed with Steve Davis, the defending champion seeded 2. Places were allocated to the leading 8 players in the world rankings. 6 players qualified (Bill Werbeniuk (ranked 9), John Virgo (ranked 19), Dean Reynolds (ranked 22), Tony Meo (ranked 24), Joe Johnson and Mark Wildman) and there were 2 wild-card entries, Jimmy White (ranked 10) and Terry Griffiths (ranked 14). Joe Johnson, Dean Reynolds and Mark Wildman were making their debuts in the Masters.

1979 Masters (snooker)

The 1979 Benson & Hedges Masters was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place from Monday 22nd to Friday 26th January 1979 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England, which would host the tournament until the venue's demolition in 2006. 10 players were invited for the tournament.

Perrie Mans of South Africa won the first Masters tournament held at the Wembley by defeating Alex Higgins 8–4 in the final.

Main draw

Century breaks

References

1999 Masters (snooker)

The 1999 Benson & Hedges Masters was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 7 and 14 February 1999 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England. The wild-card matches were extended from 9 to 11 frames.

John Higgins defeated Ken Doherty 10–8 in the final to win his first Masters title. He had also won the World title and UK title within the last year.

Field

Defending champion Mark Williams was the number 1 seed with World Champion John Higgins seeded 2. Places were allocated to the top 16 players in the world rankings. Players seeded 15 and 16 played in the wild-card round against the winner of the qualifying event, David Gray (ranked 61), and Jimmy White (ranked 18), who was the wild-card selection. David Gray and Mark King were making their debuts in the Masters.

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:
Winner: £155,000
Runner-up: £80,000
Semi-finalist: £40,000
Quarter finalist: £26,000
Last 16: £15,000
Wild-card round: £9,000

1975 Masters (snooker)

The 1975 Benson & Hedges Masters was the first of the non-ranking snooker tournament at which many of the World's top players competed. It was held from Monday 13th to Friday 17 January 1975 at the West Centre Hotel in London. Ten players were invited for the event.

John Spencer won the inaugural event by defeating Ray Reardon 9–8 on the re-spotted black in the final frame. The highest break of the tournament was 92 made by Reardon in the first frame of the final.

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:

Main draw

Century breaks

References