Irish Masters 2003
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Irish Masters 2003
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| Tournament type: | World ranking tournament |
| Venue: | Citywest Hotel, Dublin , Ireland |
| Opening: | March 25, 2003 |
| Endgame: | March 30, 2003
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| Winner: |
 Ronnie O'Sullivan
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| Finalist: |
 John Higgins
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| Highest Break: | 142 ( Peter Ebdon )
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← 2002
2004 →
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The Irish Masters 2003 was a snooker tournament as part of the Snooker Main Tour of the 2002/03 season . Although the tournament had existed since 1978, the 26th edition was the first to have ranked tournament status. It was held from March 25th to 30th, 2003 in the Irish capital Dublin in the Citywest Hotel.
Defending champion was John Higgins from Scotland , who had already won in 2000 . For the third time he reached the final of the tournament, but this time he was defeated by world number one Ronnie O'Sullivan , who won the final 10: 9 and thus won the tournament for the second time. After the European Open , it was his second tournament win in a row this season and the third win of the season overall.
Prize money / ranking points
Since the tournament as a ranking tournament had a completely different format than it was before as an invitation tournament, the awarding of the prize money cannot be compared. The prize money had more than doubled, but many more players took part. Even so, at just under £ 400,000, the Irish Masters was the second lowest premium tournament before the European Open . For the world ranking, however, the tournament had the same value as the other normal ranking tournaments.
| placement | Prize money | Points a |
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| winner | £ 48,000 | 4,000 |
| final | £ 24,000 | 3,000 |
| Semifinals | £ 11,500 | 2,500 |
| Quarter finals | £ 7,525 | 2,050 |
| Round of 16 | £ 6,660 | 1,750 |
| Last 32 | £ 5,600 | 1,450 |
| Last 48 | £ 3,000 | 1,150 |
| Last 64 | £ 2,300 | 900 |
| Last 80 | £ 1,600 | 650 |
| Last 96 | £ 800 | 400 |
| Last 128 | - | 200 |
| Highest Break (Final Round) | £ 7,500 | |
| Highest Break (Qualification) | £ 1,800 | |
| All in all | £ 399,680 |
Final round
For round 1, the 16 winners of the qualification were drawn from the top 16 of the world rankings . The first two rounds were played in best-of-9 mode , in the quarter and semi-finals six frames were needed to win in the final, 10 frames.
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 .
kl. = without a fight
final
Ronnie O'Sullivan had mixed memories of the tournament. He had won the Irish Masters 1998 at the table, but after a positive doping test the victory was denied. In 2001 he won the tournament regularly. For the 12th time he met John Higgins in a final of the professional tour and had a positive balance. Most recently, the two had contested the final of the Scottish Masters at the start of the season and the Englishman won 9: 4. He was also the winner of the European Open in the first half of the month . In the list of victories, it was 15:12 for John Higgins. The Scot had had a successful pre-season with 4 tournament victories, but this season the fourth in the world rankings was still waiting for his first win. O'Sullivan started the tournament offensively, but Higgins immediately equaled a 2-0 lead, and even when the Englishman pulled away to 5-2, his opponent made it with a 131 break before the end of the first session made the balance right at the beginning of the evening. O'Sullivan got the game under control again, but the Scot countered every advance and even at 8: 9 Higgins kept his nerve and forced the decision frame with his second century break . O'Sullivan also showed strong nerves and won with a Century Frame. It was his 13th ranking title and his 19th win in a professional tournament.
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Final: Best of 19 Frames Referee: Colin Brinded Citywest Hotel, Dublin , Ireland , March 30th 2003 |
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John Higgins
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9: 10 |
Ronnie O'Sullivan
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Afternoon : 35: 98 (60), 0: 62 , 78 : 45 (52), 86 : 0 (86), 29: 92 (52), 1: 74 (68), 55: 80 , 83 : 0 (60 ), 131 : 0 (131); Evening : 23: 69 (68), 92 : 0 (92), 79 : 0 (73), 5: 115 (82), 87 : 14 (52), 0: 76 (76), 127 : 0 (123) .0: 128 (128) |
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| 131 | Highest break | 128 |
| 2 | Century breaks | 2 |
| 9 | 50+ breaks | 8th |
Century breaks
14 players achieved 26 breaks of at least 100 points in the main tournament, 6 of which were achieved by the defeated finalist John Higgins . Peter Ebdon received an extra £ 7,500 for the highest break in the main tournament of 142 points in the opening round. Also in round 1, Stephen Hendry scored the 600th century break of his career and pushed his record further up.
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swell
- ↑ a b c 2003 Irish Masters - Finishes. CueTracker, accessed October 28, 2018 .
- ↑ 2003 Irish Masters. In: CueTracker Snooker Results & Statistics Database. Ron Florax, accessed October 28, 2018 .
- ↑ a b Citywest Irish Masters 2003. snooker.org, accessed on October 28, 2018 (English).
- ↑ Rankings - 2002-2003. In: CueTracker Snooker Results & Statistics Database. Ron Florax, accessed October 28, 2018 .