Posts tagged The Masters

The Masters. A tight clash between the top players and an opportunity for the audience to see the best snooker there is. High quality playing, excitement and prestige – that’s The Masters in a nutshell. It really is a great way to start the new year.

Although not a ranking tournament, this is still one of the most prestigious tournaments a player can win, just as the name indicates. Only the top 16 are automatically invited, as well as a few wildcards who are determined through a special qualifying tournament. The prize fund in The Masters is the second biggest after the World Championship and it’s also the tournament that has been around the longest after the World Championship.

There have been two main sponsors of the event during the years. Benson & Hedges, a cigarette brand, sponsored The Masters until 2003 when a new restriction on tobacco advertising took effect. The tournament was without a sponsor in 2004 but then Riley’s, a billiard club, became the sponsor for one year. In 2006 Saga Insurance, an insurance company that deals with health, travel, home and car insurance among other things took over.

The first Masters was held in 1975, at the Wembley Conference Centre in London moving to Wembley Arena in 2007, and the winner of this very first version of the tournament was John Spencer, an English player who together with Ray Reardon dominated the game in the 1970s. He played the final against Reardon and won 9-8 after a re-spotted black.  

The player who has won The Masters the most times is Stephen Hendry with his six victories. Between 1989 and 1993 Hendry took the trophy five consecutive times. His latest Masters victory was in 1995. Ronnie O’Sullivan isn’t very far behind with his four Masters wins. Both Steve Davis and the late Paul Hunter have won three times. The latter has almost become associated with the tournament because all of his finals were exceptionally exciting, ending 10-9.

Hunter, who died in October 2006, may be most famous for his Masters victories and it was the biggest tournament he ever won. Jimmy White even started a campaign to have The Masters renamed after Hunter as a tribute. World Snooker, however, decided that The Paul Hunter Scholarship was a more appropriate mark of respect. The scholarship will be used to help a young talented snooker player improve and accomplish his goals. In 2007 a foundation in Hunter’s memory was founded and the Paul Hunter Foundation has since then aimed to give young players, and especially disabled youngsters, an opportunity to play snooker.

Only two maximum breaks have ever been made in The Masters. The first 147 was made in 1984 by Kirk Stevens in the semi-finals, and the second was made by Ding Junhui in 2007 in the wildcard encounter against Anthony Hamilton. The first century ever made in the tournament was made in 1979 when Alex Higgins made a 132 break. Ken Doherty, who had also been in the final the year before, was extremely close to making a maximum break in the 2000 final. He was just to pot the final black ball when he missed it and later lost the match to Matthew Stephens.

In the 2009 Masters the four wildcards were Mark King, Judd Trump, Mark Allen and Ricky Walden of which the latter two proceeded to the knockout stage. The 2008 Masters winner Mark Selby, John Higgins, Maguire Maguire and O’Sullivan were the four semi-finalists. Selby and O’Sullivan proceeded to the final that went all the way to 10-8 in favour of O’Sullivan that managed to take his fourth Masters title. 18 centuries were made during the qualifying stages and 32 during the television stages. The highest break was 140 and was made by John Higgins.

There have been quite a few spectacular finals in The Masters over the years. Hendry has been in eight finals and finished as the runner-up in just three of them. In 1991 he managed to come back after 7-0, winning the match 9-8. Davis made a pretty good comeback in the 1997 final after having trailed 8-4 against O’Sullivan. The match eventually ended 10-8 in the favour of Davis. The 1998 final between Mark Williams and Hendry was decided after a re-spotted black. Hunter is probably one of the most famous Masters finalists after having provided the audience with true nail biters time and time again. In 2001 he managed to win even though his opponent, Fergal O’Brian had led 6-2. In the 2002 final Mark Williams had led 5-0. Paul Hunter then found his form, came back 5-5 and won the tournament. In 2004 he came back and won after having trailed 6-1 against O’Sullivan.

The winner of the first Masters tournament received £2000 in prize money while the victorious player in 2009 received as much as £150,000. The total prize fund was £480,000. 1991 was the first year when the winner’s prize reached six figures.

England has the most wins in The Masters with 14 victories. Wales have won six times and Scotland nine of which six of the victories were those of Stephen Hendry. There have only been a few non-UK victories. In 1979 South Africa’s Perrie Mans beat Alex Higgins in the final and Cliff Thorburn of Canada won The Masters three times and was the runner-up once.

Something about The Masters that is always intriguing is the old and young players and how they are going to do in the tournament. With the prestige involved in The Masters we somehow expect the older players to win time and time again. At the same time we are aware that a shift of generations will be necessary at some point in the future.

A young player that has done very well three years in a row without being able to reach the final is Maguire. In 2007 he lost the semi-final 6-4 to O’Sullivan who won The Masters that year. The year after he came to the quarter final but couldn’t get past Mark Selby.  Maguire then reached the semi-final in 2009 but lost 6-1 to O’Sullivan who went ahead and won the entire tournament. It seems like it would be Maguire’s turn to win this tournament soon. Who knows, if it hadn’t been for O’Sullivan he might have already.

Ding Junhui is another young player that was so close to taking the trophy but let it slip away. In 2007 he made an amazing performance throughout the entire tournament until the final when exhaustion took its toll.

Another young top 16 player who will appear in the 2010 Masters is Mark Allen. In 2008 he came to the third round in the qualifying stages where he lost to Liang Wenbo. The year after, however, he made a quite impressive performance when he, as a wildcard in the tournament, managed to reach the quarter final.

This year’s version of The Masters will have two true veterans in Stephen Hendry and Peter Ebdon. While Hendry’s past performances in The Masters are unprecedented Ebdon seems to have an affinity to quarter-finals. He has been in the Masters quarter-final no less than seven times. His best finish in the tournament were the semi-finals in 1995 and 2005.

The qualifying stages will take place October 26 to 31 2009 and the main 2010 Masters will be held between January 10 and 17 in Wembley Arena and will be broadcasted by both BBC and Eurosport. Don’t miss it.