Malta Grand Prix 1998

Malta Grand Prix 1998 Rothmans Grand Prix 1998
Tournament type:	Invitation tournament
Attendees:	8th
Venue:	New Dolmen Hotel, Bugibba , Malta
Opening:	December 3, 1998
Endgame:	December 6, 1998
Winner:	Stephen Hendry
Finalist:	Ken Doherty
Highest Break:	104 ( Ken Doherty )
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The Malta Grand Prix 1998 , also known as the Rothmans Grand Prix 1998 , was a snooker tournament as part of the Snooker Main Tour of the 1998/99 season . For the fifth edition of the invitation tournament they moved from the east to the north of the island of Malta to San Pawl il-Baħar in the Dolmen Resort. In addition, the tournament was pushed back by a month to December 3-6.

Last year's winner Ken Doherty was in the final for the second time in a row, but he did not defend his title. The winner was Stephen Hendry , who competed for the first time at the Malta Grand Prix , who defeated the Irish 7: 6 in the decision-making frame. It was his first tournament win since he had to give up his long-standing leadership in the world rankings at the beginning of the season .

It was the last time that the Grand Prix was held in this form. In 2000 it became a one-time ranking tournament and the following year an invitation tournament with a group phase was played.

Prize money

Even if the tournament didn't have a lot of prize money at £ 20,000 in total , it was still the highest prize money of the tournament to date.

placement	Prize money
winner	£ 6,000
final	£ 3,000
Semifinals	£ 2,000
Quarter finals	£ 1,500
Highest break	-
All in all	£ 20,000

Final round

For the second and last time the tournament was held with 8 participants. It was even better staffed than last year: For the first time, John Higgins was number 1 in the world rankings , three other players were from the top 5. The crowd's favorite Jimmy White also stopped by the tournament for the first time. The field of participants was completed by the 3 Maltese players who had always been invited before. The 8 players played in elimination mode for the tournament victory, in round 1 the mode was best-of-9 , in the semifinals it was increased to best of 11 and in the finals again to best of 13.

	Quarter Finals (Best of 9)					Semi-finals (Best of 11)					Final (Best of 13)
	1	John Higgins	2
	12	Alex Borg	5
						12	Alex Borg	2
						2	Stephen Hendry	6th
	2	Stephen Hendry	5
	11	Joe Grech	1
											3	Ken Doherty	6th
											2	Stephen Hendry	7th
	3	Ken Doherty	5
	6th	Jimmy White	4th
						3	Ken Doherty	6th
						4th	Mark Williams	2
	4th	Mark Williams	5
	5	Tony Drago	4th

final

Except for the first edition of the tournament, Ken Doherty had always been there and was now in the final for the second time in a row. The vice world champion and third in the world rankings came up to defend his title. Stephen Hendry had reached the final straight away when he first appeared. It was his first final in Malta. They had already met five times in a final, most recently the previous year when Doherty became world champion. Hendry had won the last three matches, even if the results were always close.

Again it was a close match. Doherty had the better start and took a 2-0 lead, but Hendry leveled off again to 2-2. The Irishman put forward two more times, but Hendry equalized immediately. Then it was the first time for the Scot to take the lead and he even extended it to 6: 4. That meant he was only missing one frame to win. But Doherty didn't give up and with a frame that he decided with a single high break and a contested 12th frame he forced the decider. There he got his chance, but it was Hendry who made the decisive break and won the match 7: 6.

Final: Best of 13 Frames New Dolmen Hotel,  Bugibba , Malta , December 6, 1998
Ken Doherty	6: 7	Stephen Hendry
73 : 39 (63), 59 : 29, 8: 86 (69), 0: 97 (97), 80 : 5 (73), 65: 67 (67), 76 : 31 (75), 32: 81 , 29: 63 , 26: 91 (74), 79 : 1 (78), 62 : 43
78	Highest break	97
-	Century breaks	-
4th	50+ breaks	5

Century breaks

When Ken Doherty competed at the Malta Grand Prix, he always managed at least one break with three-digit points. This time he was even twice successful, both century breaks - one with 100, the other with 104 points - he scored immediately one after the other at 5: 4 in his opening match against Jimmy White .

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 c} 1998 malta Grand Prix - Finishes. CueTracker, accessed November 8, 2019 . 
3. ↑ 1998 Malta Grand Prix. In: CueTracker Snooker Results & Statistics Database. Ron Florax, accessed November 8, 2019 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Rothmans Grand Prix 1998. snooker.org, accessed on November 8, 2019 (English). 
5. ↑ Rankings - 1998-1999. In: CueTracker Snooker Results & Statistics Database. Ron Florax, accessed November 8, 2019 .