Malta Grand Prix 1997

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Malta Grand Prix 1997
Rothmans Grand Prix 1997
Billiard Picto 2-black.svg

Tournament type: Invitation tournament
Attendees: 8th
Venue: Jerma Palace Hotel, Marsaskala , Malta
Opening: October 30, 1997
Endgame: November 2, 1997

Winner: IrelandIreland Ken Doherty
Finalist: ScotlandScotland John Higgins
Highest Break: 115 ( Ken Doherty ) IrelandIreland
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1998 →

The Malta Grand Prix 1997 , also known as the Rothmans Grand Prix 1997 , was a snooker tournament as part of the Snooker Main Tour of the 1997/98 season . The invitation tournament was held from October 30th to November 2nd at the Jerma Palace Hotel in Marsaskala . It was the fourth edition of the tournament.

For the first time at this tournament, last year's winner defended his title, but Nigel Bond was eliminated in round 1 against John Higgins . The Scot made it to the final, but missed the tournament victory for the second time since 1995 . This time Ken Doherty won the title , the reigning world champion won 7: 5.

Final round

After three editions in a uniform format, the tournament was cut short. Instead of 12 there were only 8 participants, instead of 8 only 5 foreign professionals. But the quality increased, for the first time with the number 2, 3 and 4 in the world rankings absolute top players were in Malta. Nigel Bond , who was the top player last year, was only the fifth best participant this year. In addition there were 3 Maltese players who had all been there in previous editions. The 8 players played in elimination mode for the tournament victory, starting as in previous years in the best-of-9 mode , in the semi-finals the best of 11 and the winner was whoever got 7 frames in the final (best of 13).

  Quarter Finals
(Best of 9) 		Semi-finals
(Best of 11) 		Final
(Best of 13)
                           
  1 MaltaMalta Tony Drago 5        
6th CanadaCanada Alain Robidoux 1  
1 MaltaMalta Tony Drago 2
  3 IrelandIreland Ken Doherty 6th  
3 IrelandIreland Ken Doherty 5
A. MaltaMalta Joe Grech 4th  
3 IrelandIreland Ken Doherty 7th
  2 ScotlandScotland John Higgins 5
4th WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Mark Williams 3    
A. MaltaMalta Alex Borg 5  
A. MaltaMalta Alex Borg 4th
  2 ScotlandScotland John Higgins 6th  
2 ScotlandScotland John Higgins 5
  5 EnglandEngland Nigel Bond 4th  

A = amateur player

final

With John Higgins and Ken Doherty , the tournament's best players in the world also made it to the final. Doherty had also become world champion a few months earlier . Higgins won the European Open in Malta that year . In a direct comparison, the Scot was ahead and among other things had won their only meeting in the final at the German Open 1995 . Their last encounter at the World Cup was against the Irish.

Nevertheless, it initially looked as if the world number two would determine the game. With two breaks in the 60s, Higgins took a 2-0 lead and was even able to pull away to 4-1 in the further course. But then Doherty picked up speed, his breaks got higher and he got three frames in a row to equalize. In the 9th frame, however, he failed to secure the point win with a 55 point break and the tightest final frame with 59 points went to Higgins. But Doherty continued to score high, equalized again, took the lead and crowned his 7-5 victory with a century break , the only one in the entire tournament. In the end he had broken at least 50 points in 7 frames in a row.

Final: Best of 13 Frames
Jerma Palace Hotel,  Marsaskala , Malta , November 2nd 1997
IrelandIreland Ken Doherty 7 : 5 ScotlandScotland John Higgins
42: 69 (61), 1: 115 (68), 68 : 0 (68), 51: 60 , 30: 81 , 72 : 4, 88 : 25 (88), 74 : 53 (73), 55: 59 (55 Doherty, 51 Higgins), 68 : 0 (50), 95 : 8 (80), 115 : 0 (115)
115 Highest break 68
1 Century breaks -
7th 50+ breaks 3

Century breaks

While in previous years several breaks of 100 or more points were achieved, this time there was only one century break . Ken Doherty closed the tournament with a 115-point break and thus completed his victory.

swell

  1. ↑ Malta Grand Prix - Malta cup. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive, archived from the original on February 16, 2012 ; accessed on November 8, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b 1997 malta Grand Prix - Finishes. CueTracker, accessed November 8, 2019 .
  3. ↑ 1997 Malta Grand Prix. In: CueTracker Snooker Results & Statistics Database. Ron Florax, accessed November 8, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b Rothmans Grand Prix 1997. snooker.org, accessed on November 8, 2019 (English).
  5. ↑ Rankings - 1997-1998. In: CueTracker Snooker Results & Statistics Database. Ron Florax, accessed November 8, 2019 .