2001 Masters (snooker)


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

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, and Jimmy White, 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:
MatchDateScore
WC1Sunday 4 February Marco Fu 1–6 Shaun Murphy
WC2Sunday 4 February Joe Swail 1–6 Jimmy White

Main draw

Final

Qualifying

won the qualifying tournament, known as the 2000 Benson & Hedges Championship at the time. David McLellan made his only maximum break against Steve Meakin.

Century breaks

Total: 19
Shaun Murphy's two century breaks and Jimmy White's 136 were scored in the wild-card round.