2003 Masters (snooker)

2003 Benson & Hedges Masters

Tournament information
Dates	2–9 February 2003 (2003-02-02 – 2003-02-09)
Venue	Wembley Conference Centre
City	London
Country	England
Organisation	WPBSA
Format	Non-ranking event
Total prize fund	£695,000
Winner's share	£210,000
Highest break	Stephen Hendry  (SCO) (144)
Final
Champion	Mark Williams  (WAL)
Runner-up	Stephen Hendry  (SCO)
Score	10–4
← 2002 2004 →

The 2003 Masters (officially the 2003 Benson & Hedges Masters) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 2 and 9 February 2003 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England.

Paul Hunter, who was aiming to complete a hat-trick of Masters titles, lost 3–6 to Mark Williams in the semi-final. Williams then beat Stephen Hendry 10–4 in the final to win his second Masters title. Hendry made the highest break of the championship with a 144 in his semi-final match against Ken Doherty, but missed out on a 147 during his quarter-final match against local favourite Jimmy White when he failed to pot the final pink.

This was the last Masters to be sponsored by Benson & Hedges after the ban on tobacco advertising which came into effect in summer 2003. Regal's sponsorship of the Scottish Masters, the Welsh Open and the Scottish Open also ended during the 2002/2003 season. However, Embassy continued to sponsor the World Championship until 2005.

A total attendance of 24,329 was the events highest since 1988.

Field

Defending champion Paul Hunter was the number 1 seed with World Champion Peter Ebdon 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, Mark Davis (ranked 37), and Steve Davis (ranked 25), who was the wild-card selection. Mark Davis, Quinten Hann and Joe Perry were making their debuts in the Masters.

Prize fund

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

• Winner: £210,000
• Runner-up: £105,000
• Highest break: £22,000
• Maximum break: £100,000
• Total: £695,000

Wild-card round

^{[1] [2] [3]}

Match	Date		Score
WC1 [4]	Sunday 2 February	Alan McManus  (SCO) (15)	6–5	Mark Davis  (ENG)
WC2 [5]	Monday 3 February	Joe Swail  (NIR) (16)	4–6	Steve Davis  (ENG)

Main draw

^{[1] [2] [3] [6]}

	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 [7]	6
	15	Alan McManus	4
						1	Paul Hunter [8]	6
						8	Stephen Lee	1
	8	Stephen Lee [5]	6
	14	Quinten Hann	4
											1	Paul Hunter [9]	3
											4	Mark Williams	6
	5	John Higgins [7]	6
		Steve Davis	2
						5	John Higgins [10]	3
						4	Mark Williams	6
	4	Mark Williams [4]	6
	12	Graeme Dott	3
																4	Mark Williams [11]	10
																7	Stephen Hendry	4
	3	Ronnie O'Sullivan	6
	13	Joe Perry [5]	1
						3	Ronnie O'Sullivan	5
						6	Ken Doherty [12]	6
	6	Ken Doherty [4]	6
	9	Matthew Stevens	5
											6	Ken Doherty [13]	3
											7	Stephen Hendry	6
	7	Stephen Hendry [14]	6
	11	Mark King	3
						7	Stephen Hendry	6
						10	Jimmy White [15]	4
	2	Peter Ebdon [16]	5
	10	Jimmy White	6

Final

Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee: Alan Chamberlain Wembley Conference Centre, London, England, 9 February 2003. [1] [11]
Mark Williams (4)   Wales	10–4	Stephen Hendry (7)   Scotland
Afternoon:69–5, 0–123 (70), 82–1 (82), 76–1, 67–47, 74–35 (59), 67–43, 0–102 (102) Evening:59–12, 27–101 (101), 50–67, 68–36, 61–1 (60), 83–0 (82)
82	Highest break	102
0	Century breaks	2
4	50+ breaks	3

Qualifying

The 2002 Masters Qualifying Event was held between 21 and 31 October 2002 at Pontin's in Prestatyn, Wales. The winner of this series of matches, who qualified for the tournament, was Mark Davis. ^[17] Tony Drago made his first and to date only maximum break against Stuart Bingham. ^{[18] [19]}

Century breaks

Total: 25 ^[2]

• 144, 134, 107, 106, 102, 101, 101 – Stephen Hendry
• 138, 104 – Paul Hunter
• 122 – Quinten Hann
• 121, 115, 103, 102, 100 – Mark Williams
• 117, 101 – John Higgins
• 112, 105 – Ronnie O'Sullivan
• 111 – Jimmy White
• 107, 104 – Mark Davis
• 104 – Steve Davis
• 104 – Matthew Stevens
• 100 – Ken Doherty

References

1. "Benson & Hedges Masters 2003". Snooker.org. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
2. "2003 Benson & Hedges Masters". Global Snooker Centre. Archived from the original on 3 September 2006.
3. "The Masters". Snooker Scene. Archived from the original on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
4. "Doherty edges past Stevens". BBC Sport. 16 February 2003. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
5. Shea, Julian (16 February 2003). "O'Sullivan sails through". BBC Sport . Retrieved 4 April 2011.
6. "2003 Benson and Hedges Masters". BBC Sport. 16 February 2003. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
7. Shea, Julian (16 February 2003). "Hunter masters McManus". BBC Sport . Retrieved 4 April 2011.
8. Shea, Julian (6 February 2003). "Hunter demolishes Lee". BBC Sport . Retrieved 4 April 2011.
9. Jones, Clive (16 February 2003). "Williams eases past Hunter". BBC Sport . Retrieved 4 April 2011.
10. Jones, Clive (7 February 2003). "Williams strides into semis". BBC Sport . Retrieved 4 April 2011.
11. Jones, Clive (17 February 2003). "Williams hammers Hendry". BBC Sport . Retrieved 4 April 2011.
12. Shea, Julian (6 February 2003). "Doherty ousts O'Sullivan". BBC Sport . Retrieved 4 April 2011.
13. Jones, Clive (8 February 2003). "Hendry breaks Doherty resistance". BBC Sport . Retrieved 4 April 2011.
14. Shea, Julian (5 February 2003). "Hendry sets up White clash". BBC Sport . Retrieved 4 April 2011.
15. Jones, Clive (16 February 2003). "Hendry battles into last four". BBC Sport . Retrieved 4 April 2011.
16. Shea, Julian (16 February 2003). "White comeback sinks Ebdon". BBC Sport . Retrieved 4 April 2011.
17. "The 2002/2003 Season". Snooker.org. Retrieved 26 February 2011.
18. Turner, Chris. "Maximum Breaks". Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 7 April 2010. Retrieved 2 April 2010.
19. Everton, Clive (29 October 2002). "Sport in brief: Snooker". The Guardian . p. 27. Archived from the original on 14 February 2025. Retrieved 14 February 2025– via newspapers.com.