2001 Masters (snooker)

Benson & Hedges Masters

Tournament information
Dates	4–11 February 2001
Venue	Wembley Conference Centre
City	London
Country	England
Organisation(s)	WPBSA
Format	Non-ranking event
Total prize fund	£650,000
Winner's share	£175,000
Highest break	Paul Hunter (136) Jimmy White (136)
Final
Champion	Paul Hunter
Runner-up	Fergal O'Brien
Score	10–9
← 2000 2002 →

The 2001 Benson & Hedges Masters was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 4 and 11 February 2001 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England.

Paul Hunter won the first of his three Masters titles by defeating Fergal O'Brien in a dramatic final match. O'Brien had led 6–2 at the end of the afternoon session, but Hunter dominated the evening session by compiling four century breaks in six frames to lead 9–8 and finally winning the title 10–9 after a long final frame.

Also in the competition, Steve Davis had failed to compete for the first time since 1980, after he had dropped out of the top 16 the previous season and was denied a wild-card. Jimmy White took the wild-card entry as he was the local favourite. A future World Champion Shaun Murphy played in his television debut after winning the Benson and Hedges Championship a few months previously and defeated Marco Fu 6–1 in the wild-card round before losing against Stephen Hendry 4–6 in the first round. The highest break of the tournament was 136, which was achieved by both Paul Hunter and Jimmy White.

Field

Defending champion Matthew Stevens was the number 1 seed with World Champion Mark Williams 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, Shaun Murphy (ranked 151), and Jimmy White (ranked 18), who was the wild-card selection. Shaun Murphy was making his debut in the Masters.

Prize fund

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

• Winner: £175,000
• Runner-up: £88,000
• Highest break: £20,000
• Total: £650,000

Wild-card round

^[1][2]

Match	Date		Score
WC1	Sunday 4 February	Marco Fu (15)	1–6	Shaun Murphy
WC2	Sunday 4 February	Joe Swail (16)	1–6	Jimmy White

Main draw

^[1][2]

	Last 16 Best of 11 frames					Quarter-finals Best of 11 frames					Semi-finals Best of 11 frames					Final Best of 19 frames
	1	Matthew Stevens	5
	14	Paul Hunter	6
						14	Paul Hunter	6
						12	Peter Ebdon	3
	8	Alan McManus	4
	12	Peter Ebdon	6
											14	Paul Hunter	6
											4	Stephen Hendry	4
	5	Ronnie O'Sullivan	2
		Jimmy White	6
							Jimmy White	4
						4	Stephen Hendry	6
	4	Stephen Hendry	6
		Shaun Murphy	4
																14	Paul Hunter	10
																9	Fergal O'Brien	9
	3	John Higgins	3
	13	Dave Harold	6
						13	Dave Harold	6
						10	John Parrott	5
	6	Stephen Lee	5
	10	John Parrott	6
											13	Dave Harold	4
											9	Fergal O'Brien	6
	7	Ken Doherty	6
	11	Anthony Hamilton	1
						7	Ken Doherty	2
						9	Fergal O'Brien	6
	2	Mark Williams	5
	9	Fergal O'Brien	6

Final

Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee: Jan Verhaas Wembley Conference Centre, London, England, 11 February 2001.[1]
Paul Hunter (14)  England	10–9	Fergal O'Brien (9)  Ireland
Afternoon: 40–59, 57–'68, 67–44, 48–80 (80), 30–72, 56–71, 78–0 (51), 34–64 Evening: 61–53 (Hunter 52), 54–57, 51–43, 133–6 (129), 136–0 (101), 0–88 (88), 104–0 (75), 136–0 (136), 132–0 (132), 44–62, 77–44
136	Highest break	88
4	Century breaks	0
7	50+ breaks	2

Qualifying

Shaun Murphy won the qualifying tournament, known as the 2000 Benson & Hedges Championship at the time.^[3] David McLellan made his only maximum break against Steve Meakin.^[4]

Century breaks

^[5]

• 136, 132, 129, 101, 101 Paul Hunter
• 136, 117 Jimmy White
• 135, 104 Peter Ebdon
• 119 Anthony Hamilton
• 116, 114 Dave Harold
• 113, 102 Shaun Murphy
• 113 Stephen Hendry
• 109 Stephen Lee
• 107 Ken Doherty
• 102 Mark Williams
• 101 Ronnie O'Sullivan

Shaun Murphy's two century breaks and Jimmy White's 136 were scored in the wild-card round.

References