2008 Masters (snooker)

The 2008 SAGA Insurance Masters professional non-ranking snooker tournament took place between 13–20 January 2008 at the Wembley Arena.

Mark Selby won the tournament, beating Stephen Lee 10–3 in the final. In the final frame, he tied Ken Doherty for the highest break of the tournament, recording a total clearance of 141.

Facts and figures

• Ryan Day potted 15 reds and 14 blacks in his wildcard match against Barry Hawkins before attempting a long black in an attempt to achieve a 147, instead of potting a straightforward brown and getting an almost assured 144.
• Peter Ebdon also was on for a 147, but missed the last-but-one red in his quarter-final match against Stephen Lee.
• Ding Junhui won his match against John Higgins 6–4, needing a snooker in the last frame with the last 5 colours remaining.
• Mark Williams scored his first century of the season (a 118) in winning the first two frames against Ken Doherty, before losing the next six.
• Ken Doherty was 4–2 down to Shaun Murphy, but made three centuries in four frames in winning 6–5.
• Seven matches went to a deciding frame (6–5).
• Two first-round matches went to the last black: Stephen Lee's match against Graeme Dott, where he came from 5–2 down to win 5–6; and Marco Fu also won on the black in defeating Neil Robertson.
• Mark Selby won three deciding-frame matches in reaching the final, coming from 5–3 to beat both Stephen Hendry and Stephen Maguire 6–5, and he also beat Ken Doherty by the same scoreline in his semi-final.
• This the first time since 1994 Masters Snooker, that Ronnie O'Sullivan didn't reach the quarter-finals.
• Michaela Tabb became the first woman to referee a Masters final. She had already refereed the Welsh Open final in 2007.

Prize fund

^[1]

Qualifying stage

Winner: £2000
Runner Up: £680
Semi Finalist: £250
Quarter Finalist: £105
Total: £3,600

TV stage

Wild card round

In the preliminary round, the qualifier and wildcard players played the 15th and 16th seeds:^[2][3]

Main draw

^[2][3]

Final

Qualifying

The 2007 Masters Qualifying Event were held between 7 September and 12 September 2007 at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.^[4] The winner of this series of matches, who qualified for the tournament, was Barry Hawkins.

Century breaks

References