European Open 2003
European Open 2003
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| Tournament type: | World ranking tournament |
| Venue: | Palace Hotel, Torquay , England |
| Opening: | March 11, 2003 |
| Endgame: | March 16, 2003
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| Winner: |
 Ronnie O'Sullivan
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| Finalist: |
 Stephen Hendry
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| Highest Break: | 142 ( Ronnie O'Sullivan )
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← 2001
2004 →
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The European Open 2003 was a snooker tournament as part of the Snooker Main Tour of the 2002/03 season . They were held from March 11 to 16, 2004 in Torquay , England , after they had previously taken place three times in Valletta on the Mediterranean island of Malta . It was also moved from autumn to spring. It was the only edition of the tournament to be held in the British Isles.
At the eleventh European Open, Stephen Hendry from Scotland was in the final for the sixth time. He had already won the tournament twice in the 1990s and was the 2001 defending champion . This time he lost to Ronnie O'Sullivan , who won the final 9: 6. For the Englishman it was the first and only title win at this tournament.
Prize money / ranking points
In total, as in the previous edition of the tournament, £ 250,000 were paid out. The winnings thus remained significantly below that which was available at the end of the 1990s. The distribution of the money and the world ranking points hadn't changed either.
| placement | Prize money | Points a |
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| winner | £ 44,000 | 4,000 |
| final | £ 22,000 | 3,000 |
| Semifinals | £ 11,000 | 2,500 |
| Quarter finals | £ 6,800 | 2,050 |
| Round of 16 | £ 4,000 | 1,750 |
| Last 32 | £ 2,600 | 1,450 |
| Last 48 | £ 1,450 | 1,150 |
| Last 64 | £ 1,050 | 900 |
| Last 80 | £ 700 | 650 |
| Last 96 | 375 pounds | 400 |
| Last 128 | - | 200 |
| Highest Break (Final Round) | £ 3,000 | |
| Highest Break (Qualification) | £ 1,000 | |
| All in all | £ 250,000 |
Final round
For round 1, the 16 winners of the qualification were drawn from the top 16 of the world rankings . The first three rounds were played in best-of-9 mode , six frames won in the semifinals and nine frames in the finals were necessary for victory.
The surprise of the opening round was the loss of Jimmy White to the lowest-placed qualifier Gerard Greene from Northern Ireland. Otherwise it was a favorite tournament : The semi-finals were played by the first two in the world rankings against the world champion and the runner-up in the last world championship .
final
In 1993 the two players had already contested the final of the European Open and Stephen Hendry had won 9: 5. 10 years later he not only made it into the final as defending champion, he had also reached the final of the two previous Main Tour tournaments and won the Welsh Open . Ronnie O'Sullivan was world number one but five places ahead of the Scot and when the two met in the final of a tournament, he had always won in recent years. The Englishman also started the final with a break of 140 points, the highest tournament break to date, but Hendry equalized unimpressed. After the break, however, O'Sullivan managed to win three frames in a row and to take the lead 5: 3 at the end of the session. In a high-class match 7 of the 8 frames were decided with a break of over 50 points. O'Sullivan continued that when he opened with a 142 break that evening. Again his Scottish opponent held against it and came up to 7: 6 again on a frame. But then O'Sullivan won the next frame, although Hendry managed a 50-point break and with another frame-critical break of 79 points, he completed the 9: 6 victory. Overall, there was a break of at least 50 points in 14 of the 15 frames. For O'Sullivan it was the 12th victory in a world ranking tournament and the 25th professional victory overall. With three wins and three defeats in the final, Hendry remained the most successful player in tournament history.
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Final: Best of 17 Frames Referee: Jan Verhaas Palace Hotel, Torquay , England , March 16, 2003  |
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Stephen Hendry
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6: 9 |
Ronnie O'Sullivan
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Afternoon : 0: 140 (140), 100 : 11, 101 : 7 (101), 0: 76 (76), 5: 62 (52), 3: 131 (126), 8: 76 (76), 88 : 33 (88); Evening : 0: 142 (142), 97 : 25 (53), 123 : 1 (117), 0: 77 (77), 72 : 37 (72), 50: 79 (Hendry 50), 0: 79 (79 ) |
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| 117 | Highest break | 142 |
| 2 | Century breaks | 3 |
| 6th | 50+ breaks | 8th |
qualification
The qualifying games were played in Blackpool from January 7th to 20th . 112 players had played for 16 free places in the final tournament in five rounds.
Century breaks
9 players achieved 20 breaks of at least 100 points in the main tournament, 8 of which went to tournament winner Ronnie O'Sullivan . He also scored the highest break for which he was awarded the £ 3,000 extra bonus. Barry Pinches got £ 1,000 for his 140-point break in qualifying.
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swell
- ↑ a b c d 2003 European Open - Finishes. CueTracker, accessed October 25, 2018 .
- ↑ a b 2003 European Open. In: CueTracker Snooker Results & Statistics Database. Ron Florax, accessed October 25, 2018 .
- ↑ a b European Open 2003. snooker.org, accessed on October 25, 2018 (English).
- ↑ Rankings - 2002-2003. In: CueTracker Snooker Results & Statistics Database. Ron Florax, accessed October 25, 2018 .