Champions Cup 2001

Champions Cup 2001
Tournament type:	Invitation tournament
Attendees:	8th
Venue:	Brighton Center , Brighton , England
Opening:	August 11, 2001
Endgame:	August 19, 2001
Winner:	John Higgins
Finalist:	Mark Williams
Highest Break:	130 ( Peter Ebdon )
← 2000

The Champions Cup 2001 was the opening event of the Main Tour - 2001/02 season . The Snooker Tournament was from 11 to 19 August 2001, as in 2000 in the Brighton Center in the southern English seaside resort of Brighton discharged. For the second time, the previous year's sponsor dropped out of the tournament and the search for a replacement was unsuccessful, so that the third Champions Cup had to do without a name sponsor.

Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan , who became world champion for the first time in May , was eliminated in the group stage with just one win. World number one Mark Williams reached the final of the third Champions Cup for the third time, but was unable to win the tournament on the third attempt. John Higgins won 7: 4 and thus got his 20th professional title.

In the following year there was no more Champions Cup and the tournament was discontinued. The idea of ​​having the most successful players of the previous year compete against each other was only taken up again in 2013, but with the Champion of Champions tournament in a completely different format.

Prize money

The prize money of £ 200,000 was maintained this year. The distribution of the premiums did not change compared to 2000.

placement	Prize money
winner	£ 100,000
final	£ 35,000
Semifinals	£ 15,000
Group participation	£ 7,500
Highest break	£ 5,000
All in all	£ 200,000

Group stage

Seven participants had won the 14 ranking and invitation tournaments of the previous season . Jimmy White , finalist of the British Open 2000 , was invited as the eighth player . The players were divided into 2 groups, in which everyone played against everyone. The two best players then progressed to the semi-finals of the elimination round. The group games were played on 5 winning frames ( Best of 9 mode ).

Legend

Sp.	Number of games played
SG	Number of games won
FG	Number of frames won
FV	Number of frames lost
FD	Frame difference
	The two group best advanced to the semi-finals.

Group A

Table:

rank	player	Sp.	SG	FG	FV	FD
1	Ken Doherty	3	3	15th	07th	+8
2	Peter Ebdon	3	2	12	09	+3
3	Ronnie O'Sullivan	3	1	10	13	−3
4th	Jimmy White	3	0	07th	15th	−8

Group games:

game	Player 1	Result	Player 2
1	Ronnie O'Sullivan	35 : 35	Jimmy White
2	Ken Doherty	25 : 25	Peter Ebdon
3	Ronnie O'Sullivan	53: 53	Ken Doherty
4th	Peter Ebdon	35 : 35	Jimmy White
5	Ronnie O'Sullivan	51: 51	Peter Ebdon
6th	Ken Doherty	15 : 15	Jimmy White

Group B

Table:

rank	player	Sp.	SG	FG	FV	FD
1	Mark Williams	3	2	14th	10	+4
2	John Higgins	3	2	14th	12	+2
3	Stephen Hendry	3	1	11	14th	−3
4th	Paul Hunter	3	1	10	13	−3

Group games:

game	Player 1	Result	Player 2
1	Mark Williams	25 : 25	Paul Hunter
2	John Higgins	54: 54th	Stephen Hendry
3	Mark Williams	54: 54th	John Higgins
4th	Stephen Hendry	53: 53	Paul Hunter
5	Mark Williams	35 : 35	Stephen Hendry
6th	John Higgins	35 : 35	Paul Hunter

Finals

In the semifinals, a group winner played against a group runner-up. The winners of the two games then contested the final. In the semifinals, the best of 9 was again , the final was a best of 13 match. After world number two Ronnie O'Sullivan was eliminated, the two remaining top-ranked players prevailed with Mark Williams and John Higgins .

	Semi-final Best of 9 frames					Final Best of 13 frames
	A1	Ken Doherty	2
	B2	John Higgins	5
						B2	John Higgins	7th
						B1	Mark Williams	4th
	B1	Mark Williams	5
	A2	Peter Ebdon	2

final

Mark Williams was number 1 in the world rankings and made it to the final five times last year, but he lost four times. Even John Higgins had lost his last final in the previous tournament, but that was after the World Cup and was runner-up. The previous year they met in the final of the UK Championship , when the Scot had won 10: 4. Their group encounter before Higgins had also just won 5: 4 after a 3-0 lead.

This time Williams had the better start, but he could not hold a 2-0 lead and Higgins equalized at break. The Welshman then took the lead again by 2 frames, but Higgins tied again to make it 4: 4. This was followed by two frames in which Williams took the lead with high breaks, but still lost both times. In the 10th frame, Higgins stole the frame by one point despite 69 points from Williams and went 6: 4 forward. But that meant he was only missing one frame, it was the 5th frame in a row that he then won and thus completed the 7: 4 victory. The Scot had also won the Charity Challenge twice in 1998 and 1999 , which is considered the forerunner of the Champions Cup.

Final: Best of 13 Frames Brighton Center ,  Brighton , England , 19th August 2001
John Higgins	7 : 4	Mark Williams
0: 100 (100), 22: 71 , 75 : 5 (75), 65 : 33, 0: 124 (124), 55: 72 , 80 : 47, 127 : 0 (109), 71 : 56 (67, 56), 70 : 69 (69 Williams), 65 : 37
109	Highest break	124
1	Century breaks	2
3	50+ breaks	4th

swell

1. ↑ 2001 Champions Cup - Finishes. CueTracker, accessed October 10, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Liverpool Victoria Charity Challenge / Champions Sup. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive, archived from the original on January 7, 2012 ; accessed on October 10, 2019 (English). 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} 2001 Champions Cup. CueTracker, accessed October 10, 2019 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Champions Cup 2001. snooker.org, accessed on October 10, 2019 (English). 
5. ↑ The snooker season so far. BBC , January 21, 2002, accessed October 10, 2019 .