European Masters (snooker)

The European Masters is a professional ranking snooker tournament that has been staged periodically since 1989 as the European Open. Between 2005 and 2008 it was known as the Malta Cup and was the sole ranking tournament in Europe outside the British Isles, before being discontinued. In 2016, the event was resurrected and rebranded the European Masters.

European Masters
Tournament information
CountryVarious European countries
Established1989
Organisation(s)World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association
FormatRanking event
Total prize fund£427,000
Current champion Barry Hawkins (ENG)

History

Before the 1988/89 season, there were no ranking events outside the United Kingdom. There were, however, many successful invitation events, so the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association decided to extend the tour with some overseas events. The first two were held in Canada and mainland Europe. The first European event was the European Open in 1988 in Deauville, France, with the sponsorship of ICI. The event then was held at the Palais des Sports in Lyon, France, for 1992 and at the Imax Centre in Rotterdam, Netherlands with the sponsorship of Tulip Computers.[1]

The event was then moved to Belgium. It was held in Tongeren in 1992 and Antwerp between 1993 and 1994 with sponsorship from Humo. The event was moved to the first half of the season in 1993/1994, thus there were two events in 1993, in February and December. The event was moved back to its original place in the calendar in 1995/1996 and took place in Valletta, Malta between 1996 and 1997. The event was not held in the next four seasons.[1] In the 1999/2000 season the Malta Grand Prix was the only continental European ranking event and in 2000/2001 there were none for the first time in 13 seasons.[1]

The European Open was revived in 2001/2002 and was held in Valletta, Malta. In 2003 the event was held in England for the first time (Torquay). The following year it returned to Malta, this time held in Portomaso. The following season event was renamed the Malta Cup.[1] The 2006 event was the first ranking tournament, where no English player reached the quarter-finals. It became an invitation event in 2007/2008, but it was discontinued afterwards.[2]

In 2016, it was announced that the event would be revived under the name European Masters in Romania for the next three years.[3][4] However, in 2017 it was announced that the tournament would be held in Belgium that year.[5] In 2020, it was held in Milton Keynes, due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The 2022 event will be held at the same venue, after COVID-19 rates in Bavaria prevented it from being held at the Stadthalle in Fürth. The final was traditionally played as a best-of-17 frames match, but for 2022, it was extended to a best-of-19.

There has been five maximum breaks in the history of the tournament. Alain Robidoux made the first in the first qualifying round of the 1989 event against Jim Meadowcroft.[1][6] The second was Shaun Murphy's fifth official maximum break, which he compiled in the second qualifying round of the 2016 event against Allan Taylor.[7] The third and fourth came at the qualifying stage of the 2022 event. On 16 July, Zhang Anda made a maximum break during his 5–1 win over Anton Kazakov; the following day, Hossein Vafaei made a maximum as he defeated Ng On-yee by the same score. It was the first time either player had made a 147 in professional competition.[8][9] The most recent maximum break was made by Sean O'Sullivan in the qualifying round of the 2023 event against Barry Hawkins.[10]

Winners
Year Winner Runner-up Final score Venue Season
European Open (ranking)[1][11]
1989 England John Parrott Wales Terry Griffiths 9–8 Deauville, France 1988/89
1990 England John Parrott Scotland Stephen Hendry 10–6 Lyon, France 1989/90
1991 England Tony Jones England Mark Johnston-Allen 9–7 Rotterdam, Netherlands 1990/91
1992 England Jimmy White England Mark Johnston-Allen 9–3 Tongeren, Belgium 1991/92
1993 England Steve Davis Scotland Stephen Hendry 10–4 Antwerp, Belgium 1992/93
1993 Scotland Stephen Hendry England Ronnie O'Sullivan 9–5 1993/94
1994 Scotland Stephen Hendry England John Parrott 9–3 1994/95
1996 England John Parrott England Peter Ebdon 9–7 Valletta, Malta 1995/96
1997 Scotland John Higgins England John Parrott 9–5 1996/97
Irish Open (ranking)[1]
1998 Wales Mark Williams Scotland Alan McManus 9–4 Tallaght, Ireland 1998/99
European Open (ranking)[1][11]
2001 Scotland Stephen Hendry England Joe Perry 9–2 Valletta, Malta 2001/02
2003 England Ronnie O'Sullivan Scotland Stephen Hendry 9–6 Torquay, England 2002/03
2004 Scotland Stephen Maguire England Jimmy White 9–3 Portomaso, Malta 2003/04
Malta Cup (ranking)[2][12]
2005 Scotland Stephen Hendry Scotland Graeme Dott 9–7 Portomaso, Malta 2004/05
2006 Republic of Ireland Ken Doherty Scotland John Higgins 9–8 2005/06
2007 England Shaun Murphy Wales Ryan Day 9–4 2006/07
Malta Cup (non-ranking)[2][12]
2008 England Shaun Murphy Republic of Ireland Ken Doherty 9–3 Portomaso, Malta 2007/08
European Masters (ranking)[4]
2016 England Judd Trump England Ronnie O'Sullivan 9–8 Bucharest, Romania 2016/17
2017 England Judd Trump England Stuart Bingham 9–7 Lommel, Belgium 2017/18
2018 England Jimmy Robertson England Joe Perry 9–6 2018/19
2020 (Jan) Australia Neil Robertson China Zhou Yuelong 9–0 Dornbirn, Austria 2019/20
2020 (Sep) England Mark Selby England Martin Gould 9–8 Milton Keynes, England 2020/21
2022 (Feb) China Fan Zhengyi England Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–9 2021/22
2022 (Aug) England Kyren Wilson England Barry Hawkins 9–3 Fürth, Germany[13][14] 2022/23
2023 England Barry Hawkins England Judd Trump 9–6 Nuremberg, Germany 2023/24

See also

References
  1. Turner, Chris. "Major European Tournaments". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 February 2012. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  2. Turner, Chris. "Malta Grand Prix, Malta Cup". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 3 April 2012. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  3. "Romania to stage new European Championship". World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 21 December 2015. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  4. "European Open 2016". World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 10 May 2016. Archived from the original on 11 May 2016.
  5. "Belgium To Host Snooker's European Masters". World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 5 July 2017. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
  6. Turner, Chris. "Maximum breaks". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 10 February 2013. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  7. "Murphy Makes 147 In Preston". World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 28 September 2016. Archived from the original on 2 October 2016. Retrieved 28 November 2022.
  8. "Zhang Joins 147 Club". wst.tv. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 16 July 2022. Archived from the original on 16 July 2022. Retrieved 28 November 2022.
  9. "Maximum Joy For Prince Of Persia". wst.tv. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 17 July 2022. Archived from the original on 17 July 2022. Retrieved 28 November 2022.
  10. "O'Sullivan fires in Leicester maximum". wst.tv. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 28 July 2023. Archived from the original on 29 July 2023. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  11. "Hall of Fame (European Open)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  12. "Hall of Fame (Malta Cup)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  13. "Snooker European Masters Tickets".
  14. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2022-10-31. Retrieved 2022-03-14.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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