2002 Masters (snooker)

Benson & Hedges Masters

Tournament information
Dates	3–10 February 2002
Venue	Wembley Conference Centre
City	London
Country	England
Organisation(s)	WPBSA
Format	Non-ranking event
Total prize fund	£695,000
Winner's share	£190,000
Highest break	Ronnie O'Sullivan (138)
Final
Champion	Paul Hunter
Runner-up	Mark Williams
Score	10–9
← 2001 2003 →

The 2002 Benson & Hedges Masters was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 3 and 10 February 2002 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England.

Paul Hunter won his second Masters title defeating Mark Williams in another final frame decider. In the match Williams had led 5–0 before Hunter made it 5–5. Then both players played all the way before Hunter lead 9–8. Williams then made a frame winning break to turn into another decider. Hunter then made a break of 65 to become only the third player to retain the title after Cliff Thorburn and Stephen Hendry.^[1] The highest break of the tournament was 138 made by Ronnie O'Sullivan.

Field

Defending champion Paul Hunter was the number 1 seed with World Champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 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, Ryan Day (ranked 215), and Steve Davis (ranked 21), who was the wild-card selection. Ryan Day and Graeme Dott were making their debuts in the Masters.

Prize fund

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

• Winner: £190,000
• Runner-up: £95,000
• Highest break: £20,000
• Total: £695,000

Wild-card round

^[2][3][4]

Match	Date		Score
WC1	Monday 4 February	Dave Harold (15)	3–6	Ryan Day
WC2	Sunday 3 February	Fergal O'Brien (16)	6–5	Steve Davis

Main draw

^[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	Paul Hunter	6
	9	Stephen Lee	3
						1	Paul Hunter	6
						8	Peter Ebdon	5
	8	Peter Ebdon	6
	14	Graeme Dott	4
											1	Paul Hunter	6
											12	Alan McManus	5
	5	Ken Doherty	3
	16	Fergal O'Brien	6
						16	Fergal O'Brien	4
						12	Alan McManus	6
	4	John Higgins	5
	12	Alan McManus	6
																1	Paul Hunter	10
																3	Mark Williams	9
	3	Mark Williams	6
	13	Mark King	1
						3	Mark Williams	6
						6	Stephen Hendry	4
	6	Stephen Hendry	6
		Ryan Day	0
											3	Mark Williams	6
											11	Jimmy White	5
	7	Matthew Stevens	1
	11	Jimmy White	6
						11	Jimmy White	6
						2	Ronnie O'Sullivan	5
	2	Ronnie O'Sullivan	6
	10	Joe Swail	3

Final

Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee: Jan Verhaas Wembley Conference Centre, London, England, 10 February 2002.[2]
Paul Hunter (1)  England	10–9	Mark Williams (3)  Wales
Afternoon: 1–84 (79), 51–64, 6–83, 53–64, 79–82, 74–56 (Williams 56), 107–7 (69), 67–56 (Williams 56) Evening: 88–8 (61), 59–56, 20–61 (53), 70–5 (57), 39–65, 85–6 (84), 71–34, 4–65, 65–37, 0–73 (72), 65–10 (65)
84	Highest break	79
0	Century breaks	0
5	50+ breaks	5

Qualifying

Ryan Day won the qualifying tournament, known as the 2001 Benson & Hedges Championship at the time.^[5] Shaun Murphy made his first maximum break against Adrian Rosa.^[6]

Century breaks

^[7]

• 138, 108 Ronnie O'Sullivan
• 133, 127, 102 Mark Williams
• 124 Peter Ebdon
• 109 Joe Swail
• 108 Jimmy White
• 105, 101 Paul Hunter
• 103 Stephen Hendry
• 102 Alan McManus
• 100 Fergal O'Brien

Fergal O'Brien's century was scored in the wild-card round.

References