1997 German Open (snooker)

1997 German Open

Tournament information
Dates	8–14 December 1997 (1997-12-08 – 1997-12-14)
Venue	Atlantis Rheinhotel
City	Bingen am Rhein
Country	Germany
Organisation	WPBSA
Format	Ranking event
Total prize fund	£280,000
Winner's share	£50,000
Highest break	Stephen Hendry  (SCO) (130)
Final
Champion	John Higgins  (SCO)
Runner-up	John Parrott  (ENG)
Score	9–4
← 1996 1998 →

The 1997 German Open was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 8 and 14 December 1997 at the Atlantis Rheinhotel in Bingen am Rhein, Germany. It was the third edition of the tournament, with 16 players competing in the final stage. John Higgins won the event for the second time, defeating John Parrott 9–4 in the final.

Summary

Three of the four quarter-finals went to the final frame. John Higgins beat Anthony Hamilton 5–4. Ronnie O'Sullivan beat Tony Drago by the same score after fluking the final black. Ken Doherty also beat Jamie Burnett in the final frame, having been 1–3 down. John Parrott beat Stephen Hendry 5–3 in the other match. Hendry won the third frame to take a 2–1 lead, despite need two snookers. Parrott won the next two frames, winning the fifth frame with a break of 103. Hendry then won the next frame with a break of 130, his 400th in professional competition, before Parrott won frames seven and eight to win the match. ^[1]

In the semi-finals John Higgins beat Ronnie O'Sullivan 6–4, with John Parrott beating Ken Doherty by the same score. ^[1] In the final, Higgins led 5–3 lead after the first session, despite Parrott making a break of 102 in frame 7. Higgins then won the first three frames in the evening session to lead 8–3. Parrott won frame 12 but Higgins finished the match with a break of 105 in the next frame, winning the first prize of £50,000. ^[1] Stephen Hendry won the high break prize for his break of 130 in the quarter-finals. ^[1]

Main draw

^{[2] [1]}

	Last 16 Best of 9 frames					Quarter-finals Best of 9 frames					Semi-finals Best of 11 frames					Final Best of 17 frames
	1	Ronnie O'Sullivan  (ENG)	5
	12	James Wattana  (THA)	2
						1	Ronnie O'Sullivan	5
						11	Tony Drago	4
	11	Tony Drago  (MLT)	5
		Quinten Hann  (AUS)	3
											1	Ronnie O'Sullivan	4
											3	John Higgins	6
		Jason Ferguson  (ENG)	2
	14	Anthony Hamilton  (ENG)	5
						14	Anthony Hamilton	4
						3	John Higgins	5
		Martin Clark  (ENG)	2
	3	John Higgins  (SCO)	5
																3	John Higgins	9
																7	John Parrott	4
	2	Stephen Hendry  (SCO)	5
		Jimmy White  (ENG)	2
						2	Stephen Hendry	3
						7	John Parrott	5
	16	Stephen Lee  (ENG)	3
	7	John Parrott  (ENG)	5
											7	John Parrott	6
											4	Ken Doherty	4
		Gary Wilkinson  (ENG)	4
		Jamie Burnett  (SCO)	5
							Jamie Burnett	4
						4	Ken Doherty	5
		Shokat Ali  (PAK)	2
	4	Ken Doherty  (IRL)	5

Final

Final: Best of 11 frames. Atlantis Rheinhotel, Bingen am Rhein, Germany, 14 December 1997. [1]
John Higgins   Scotland	9–4	John Parrott   England
First session:83–28, 1–92 (86), 14–67, 69–21, 72–44, 57–27, 0–102 (102), 59–48 Second session:80–5 (80), 80–49 (54), 80–14, 53–67, 109–25 (105)
105	Highest break	102
1	Century breaks	1
3	50+ breaks	2

Qualifying

Qualifying was held at the Hereford Leisure Centre in Hereford in September 1997. ^{[3] [1]}

Final qualifying round

Ronnie O'Sullivan  (ENG) 5–1   Graeme Dott  (SCO)   James Wattana  (THA) 5–4   Dave Harold  (ENG)   Tony Drago  (MLT) 5–4   Steve James  (ENG)   Mark Williams  (WAL) 3–5   Quinten Hann  (AUS)   Peter Ebdon  (ENG) 1–5   Jason Ferguson  (ENG)   Anthony Hamilton  (ENG) 5–3   Ian McCulloch  (ENG)   Steve Davis  (ENG) 3–5   Martin Clark  (ENG)   John Higgins  (SCO) 5–0   Brian Morgan  (ENG)

Stephen Hendry  (SCO) 5–0   Paul Wykes  (ENG)   Alan McManus  (SCO) 2–5   Jimmy White  (ENG)   Stephen Lee  (ENG) 5–3   Chris Small  (SCO)   John Parrott  (ENG) 5–2   Lee Walker  (WAL)   Nigel Bond  (ENG) 3–5   Gary Wilkinson  (ENG)   Alain Robidoux  (CAN) 1–5   Jamie Burnett  (SCO)   Darren Morgan  (WAL) 2–5   Shokat Ali  (PAK)   Ken Doherty  (IRL) 5–3   Billy Snaddon  (SCO)

References

1. "German Open 1997". Snooker.org. 20 April 2012. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
2. "German Open". Snooker Scene. Archived from the original on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
3. "Snooker". The Guardian . 29 September 1997. p. Sport 11 – via Newspapers.com.