1995 Masters (snooker)

Overview

The Masters is an invitational snooker tournament that was first held in 1975, with the top-16 players from the snooker world rankings as well as the winner of the Benson & Hedges Championship and a wild card entrant invited to participate for the 1995 competition. It is one of the three Triple Crown events in the game of snooker; the others being the World Snooker Championship and the UK Championship. The 1995 Masters was the 21st holding of the event, and took place at the Wembley Conference Centre from 5 to 12 February 1995.

Sponsored by the tobacco company Benson & Hedges, the total prize fund was £435,000 with £120,000 being awarded to the winner. The tournament was broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Television. Every match was played as best-of-nine , before the semi-finals were played as best-of-11 frames, and the final was the best-of-17 frames. Scottish player and World Champion Stephen Hendry was installed as the favourite to win the tournament.

Field

Defending champion Alan McManus was the number 1 seed with World Champion Stephen Hendry 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 Williams (ranked 58), and John Higgins (ranked 51), who was the wild-card selection. Tony Drago, John Higgins, Joe Swail and Mark Williams were making their debuts in the Masters.

Wild-card round

In the preliminary round the wild-card players played the 15th and 16th seeds:

Main draw

| seed-width = | team-width = 180 | score-width = Best of 9 frames Best of 9 frames Best of 11 frames Best of 17 frames | RD1-seed01=1 | RD1-team01=Alan McManus | RD1-score01=5 | RD1-seed02=13 | RD1-team02=David Roe | RD1-score02=3 | RD1-seed03=8 | RD1-team03=Darren Morgan | RD1-score03=2 | RD1-seed04= | RD1-team04=John Higgins | RD1-score04=5 | RD1-seed05=5 | RD1-team05=Jimmy White | RD1-score05=5 | RD1-seed06=12 | RD1-team06=Joe Swail | RD1-score06=2 | RD1-seed07=4 | RD1-team07=James Wattana | RD1-score07=5 | RD1-seed08= | RD1-team08=Mark Williams | RD1-score08=4 | RD1-seed09=3 | RD1-team09=Steve Davis | RD1-score09=3 | RD1-seed10=14 | RD1-team10=Terry Griffiths | RD1-score10=5 | RD1-seed11=6 | RD1-team11=John Parrott | RD1-score11=4 | RD1-seed12=9 | RD1-team12=Ronnie O'Sullivan | RD1-score12=5 | RD1-seed13=7 | RD1-team13=Ken Doherty | RD1-score13=3 | RD1-seed14=10 | RD1-team14=Peter Ebdon | RD1-score14=5 | RD1-seed15=2 | RD1-team15=Stephen Hendry | RD1-score15=5 | RD1-seed16=11 | RD1-team16=Nigel Bond | RD1-score16=1 | RD2-seed01=1 | RD2-team01=SCO Alan McManus | RD2-score01=2 | RD2-seed02= | RD2-team02=SCO John Higgins | RD2-score02=5 | RD2-seed03=5 | RD2-team03=ENG Jimmy White | RD2-score03=5 | RD2-seed04=4 | RD2-team04=THA James Wattana | RD2-score04=3 | RD2-seed05=14 | RD2-team05=WAL Terry Griffiths | RD2-score05=2 | RD2-seed06=9 | RD2-team06=ENG Ronnie O'Sullivan | RD2-score06=5 | RD2-seed07=10 | RD2-team07=ENG Peter Ebdon | RD2-score07=5 | RD2-seed08=2 | RD2-team08=SCO Stephen Hendry | RD2-score08=4 | RD3-seed01= | RD3-team01=SCO John Higgins | RD3-score01=6 | RD3-seed02=5 | RD3-team02=ENG Jimmy White | RD3-score02=1 | RD3-seed03=9 | RD3-team03=ENG Ronnie O'Sullivan | RD3-score03=6 | RD3-seed04=10 | RD3-team04=ENG Peter Ebdon | RD3-score04=4 | RD4-seed01= | RD4-team01=SCO John Higgins | RD4-score01=3 | RD4-seed02=9 | RD4-team02=ENG Ronnie O'Sullivan | RD4-score02=9

Final

Qualifying

Mark Williams won the qualifying tournament, known as the 1994 Benson & Hedges Championship at the time.

Century breaks

There were a total of 13 century breaks made by a total of 8 players during the tournament's main stage.

• 141, 112 Stephen Hendry
• 132 Tony Drago
• 131, 129, 103 Peter Ebdon
• 125 Terry Griffiths
• 111, 106, 104 John Higgins
• 104 Darren Morgan
• 104 Alan McManus
• 102 Ronnie O'Sullivan

Tony Drago's century and John Higgins's 106 were scored in the wild-card round.

References

References

1. Turner, Chris. "On this Week: White becomes Brown". [[Eurosport.
2. Turner, Chris. "The Masters". Chris Turner's Snooker Archive.
3. "The Dafabet Masters". World Snooker.
4. Everton, Clive. (25 October 1994). "Final success deals Higgins strong hand for a wild card". [[The Guardian]].
5. Yates, Phil. (4 February 1995). "Davis sets his sights on Masters success". [[The Times]].
6. Yates, Phil. (12 February 1995). "White: Played badly, said Higgins; Higgins on a high". [[The Observer]].
7. (5 January 1995). "1995 sporting calendar". [[Reading Evening Post]].
8. Henderson, Jon. (5 February 1995). "Critics have their say but Inverdale keeps his shirt on". [[The Observer]].
9. "1995 Benson & Hedges Masters". Global Snooker Centre.
10. "The Masters". Snooker Scene.
11. "1995 Benson & Hedges Masters". Snooker.org.
12. "1995 Masters Results Grid". Snooker Database.
13. (13 February 1995). "O'Sullivan wins battle of young masters". The Times.
14. Turner, Chris. "Benson & Hedges Championship, Masters Qualifying Tournament". Chris Turner's Snooker Archive.
15. Dee, John. (6 February 1995). "Higgins douses early Drago fire". [[The Daily Telegraph]].