2004 Masters (snooker)

Masters

Tournament information
Dates	1–8 February 2004
Venue	Wembley Conference Centre
City	London
Country	England
Organisation(s)	WPBSA
Format	Non-ranking event
Winner's share	£100,000
Highest break	138
Final
Champion	Paul Hunter
Runner-up	Ronnie O'Sullivan
Score	10–9
← 2003 2005 →

The 2004 Masters was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 1–8 February 2004 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England.

At the start of the competition 16-year-old Chinese Ding Junhui caused a stir by defeating Joe Perry 6–3 on his television début. He then faced Stephen Lee in the next round, but lost 5–6 despite leading 5–2.

Paul Hunter went on to win his third title in four years by defeating Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–9. Hunter trailed O'Sullivan throughout the entire match, before pipping him to the trophy in the final frame. In fact, Hunter trailed 1–6, 2–7, 6–8 and 7–9 before reeling off the final three frames to seal the sixth title of his professional career.

This was the first Masters not to be sponsored by Benson and Hedges, who had sponsored the tournament since it started in 1975, after the ban on tobacco advertising came into effect in summer 2003. This year's competition was unsponsored.

Field

Mark Williams, the defending champion and World Champion was the number 1 seed. 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, Neil Robertson, and Ding Junhui, who was the wild-card selection. Neil Robertson and Ding Junhui were making their debuts in the Masters.

Wild-card round

^[1][2][3][4]

Match	Date		Score
WC1[5]	Sunday 1 February	Jimmy White (15)	6–2	Neil Robertson
WC2[6]	Monday 2 February	Joe Perry (16)	3–6	Ding Junhui

Main draw

^[1][2][3][4]

	Last 16 Best of 11 frames					Quarter-finals Best of 11 frames					Semi-finals Best of 11 frames					Final Best of 19 frames
	1	Mark Williams[5]	6
	9	Matthew Stevens	5
						1	Mark Williams[7]	5
						8	Paul Hunter	6
	8	Paul Hunter[8]	6
	12	David Gray	3
											8	Paul Hunter[9]	6
											4	John Higgins	3
	5	Stephen Lee[10]	6
		Ding Junhui	5
						5	Stephen Lee[11]	4
						4	John Higgins	6
	4	John Higgins[12]	6
	13	Graeme Dott	4
																8	Paul Hunter[13]	10
																3	Ronnie O'Sullivan	9
	3	Ronnie O'Sullivan	6
	10	Alan McManus[14]	0
						3	Ronnie O'Sullivan	6
						6	Ken Doherty[15]	3
	6	Ken Doherty[12]	6
	11	Steve Davis	3
											3	Ronnie O'Sullivan	6
											15	Jimmy White[16]	4
	7	Peter Ebdon[17]	6
	14	Quinten Hann	3
						7	Peter Ebdon	4
						15	Jimmy White[18]	6
	2	Stephen Hendry[19]	4
	15	Jimmy White	6

Final

Final: Best of 19 frames. Wembley Conference Centre, London, England, 8 February 2004.[2]
Paul Hunter (8)  England	10–9	Ronnie O'Sullivan (3)  England
Afternoon: 22–59 (56), 26–80 (80), 117–8 (117), 1–86 (86), 0–87 (87), 22–84 (84), 7–124 (79), 127–0 (127) Evening: 47–84, 90–0, 102–27 (102), 82–9 (82), 76–0, 32–97, 109–21 (109), 0–86, 142–0 (110), 72–35 (58), 63–15
127	Highest break	87
5	Century breaks	0
7	50+ breaks	6

Qualifying

The 2004 Masters Qualifying Event was held between 15 and 21 December 2003 at Pontin's in Prestatyn, Wales. The winner of this series of matches, who qualified for the tournament, was Neil Robertson.^[20]

Century breaks

^[3]

• 138 Ronnie O'Sullivan
• 127, 117, 110, 109, 102, 101 Paul Hunter
• 118, 108 Ding Junhui
• 115, 101 Jimmy White
• 110, 100 John Higgins
• 108, 102 Peter Ebdon
• 105 Matthew Stevens
• 103, 101 Mark Williams
• 101 Stephen Hendry

References