Brazil Masters

Brazil Masters 2011
Tournament type:	Invitation tournament
Venue:	Costão do Santinho Resort, Florianópolis , Brazil
Opening:	September 15, 2011
Endgame:	September 18, 2011
Winner:	Shaun Murphy
Finalist:	Graeme Dott
Highest Break:	139 ( Shaun Murphy )

The Brazil Masters 2011 (also: Brazilian Masters 2011 ) was a one-time snooker tournament that took place from September 15 to 18, 2011 as part of the 2011/12 snooker season in Florianópolis , Brazil . The invitation tournament, which was originally to take place in São Paulo , was the first Main Tour tournament in history to take place in South America and, after the Canadian Masters, the second on the Americas.

Shaun Murphy , the 2005 world champion , won the tournament with a clear 5-0 final victory over Graeme Dott from Scotland .

Prize money

Winner: $ 40,000
Finalist: $ 20,000
Semi- finalists: $ 11,000
Quarter- finalists: $ 7,000
Round of 16: $ 4,000

Highest Break: $ 2,000
Total: $ 200,000

Field of participants

Thirteen Main Tour professionals and three local amateurs were invited to the tournament, one of the Main Tour professionals being a Brazilian himself.

In the run-up to the tournament, Barry Hearn , chairman of the WPBSA since 2010, criticized the fact that some of the top players did not accept their invitation to the tournament. According to Hearn, they are damaging the plan to make snooker more popular internationally and to open up new markets. This is particularly surprising since many actors had complained before Hearns took office that there were too few official tournaments on the Snooker Main Tour .

The players Mark J. Williams , John Higgins , Ding Junhui , Neil Robertson , Stephen Maguire , Ronnie O'Sullivan , Judd Trump , Mark Allen and Matthew Stevens named Hearn in this context.

The reason for the many cancellations by the players is, in addition to the lack of world ranking points at the tournament, probably also the date shortly after the Shanghai Masters 2011 .

Mark Allen's original commitment turned out to be a misunderstanding between Allen and his management. On August 22, it was announced that Martin Gould was replacing Allen.

Results

After all the cancellations, Mark Selby was the top player of the tournament. With him came number one in the preliminary world rankings and winner of the Shanghai Masters from the previous weekend. However, after the long tournament and the switch from Asia to South America, he already had a hard time at the start against Stuart Bingham and in round 2 he saved himself against Peter Ebdon in the decision-making frame, but then retired. The big surprise of the first round was local hero Igor Figueiredo , who in his second year as a professional has not yet made it past the round of the best 64 in a full ranking tournament, but with Jamie Cope was able to defeat a current top 16 player right from the start and with 114 points also scored the first century break of the tournament. He also started very briskly against Graeme Dott and led 2-1 before the Scot still prevailed with three frame wins in a row and was able to convincingly beat Peter Ebdon in the semifinals.

The other Scot in the tournament, veteran Stephen Hendry , lost his very first tournament frame against the Brazilian amateur Noel Rodrigues, but from then on showed a convincing performance again. Eight frame wins in a row not only secured him the victory over the local hero, but also the semi-finals after a smooth 4-0 against the world number six Ali Carter . In the semifinals, he met Shaun Murphy , who, like him, had only lost one frame by then. But then he had little to oppose the Englishman, who showed himself in impressive form, and lost 1: 5.

How well Murphy was in shape was shown in the final against Graeme Dott. The world number seven from England punished any inaccuracy and took every chance. Dott, after all number ten in the world, made only 60 points in the first four frames and Murphy finally crowned his victory with a break of 139, the highest tournament break, to a smooth 5-0 success.

Round of 16 best of 7 frames

Quarterfinals Best of 7 Frames

Semi-final Best of 9 frames

Final best of 9 frames

Mark Selby

4th

Stuart Bingham

3

Mark Selby

3

Peter Ebdon

4th

Peter Ebdon

4th

Stephen Lee

1

Peter Ebdon

2

Graeme Dott

5

Jamie Cope

2

Igor Figueiredo

4th

Igor Figueiredo

2

Graeme Dott

4th

Graeme Dott

4th

Mark Davis

1

Graeme Dott

0

Shaun Murphy

5

Shaun Murphy

4th

Sobradinho de Dues

0

Shaun Murphy

4th

Ricky Walden

1

Martin Gould

1

Ricky Walden

4th

Shaun Murphy

5

Stephen Hendry

1

Stephen Hendry

4th

Noel Rodrigues Moreira

1

Stephen Hendry

4th

Ali Carter

0

Ali Carter

4th

Steve Davis

2

Swell:

final

Final: Best of 9 Frames Referee: Michaela Tabb Costão do Santinho Resort,  Florianópolis , Brazil , September 18, 2011
Graeme Dott	0: 5	Shaun Murphy
4: 93 (81), 35: 84 , 21: 72 (54), 0: 79 (79), 0: 139 (139)
-	Highest break	139
-	Century breaks	1
-	50+ breaks	4th

Century breaks

Shaun Murphy	139, 111
Igor Figueiredo	114
Stephen Hendry	113

Web links

• Official homepage ( Memento from May 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Brazilian Masters Snooker Planned For September 2011. masterssnooker.com, October 26, 2010, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on March 9, 2016 (English). 
2. ^ Hearn goes nuts over Brazil. In: snookerscene.blogspot.de. Snooker Scene, August 12, 2011, archived from the original on March 9, 2016 ; accessed on March 9, 2016 (English). 
3. ^ Another one drops from Brazil. In: thesnookerblog.com. The Snooker Blog, August 22, 2011, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on March 9, 2016 (English). 
4. ↑ Brazil Masters (2011). Snooker.org, accessed March 9, 2016 . 
5. ↑ 2011 Brazil Masters. In: cuetracker.net. Ron Florax, accessed March 9, 2016 . 
6. ^ Century Breaks . In: worldsnookerdata.com . World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association . Archived from the original on September 19, 2011. Retrieved September 18, 2011.