2004/05 snooker season

2004/05 snooker season
Season dates
Beginning of the season	October 2, 2004
End of season	May 2, 2005
Ranked tournaments	8th
Invitation tournaments	1
number of players	96
Triple Crown Winner
UK Championship	Stephen Maguire
Masters	Ronnie O'Sullivan
World Champion	Shaun Murphy
World ranking
Ranking first	Ronnie O'Sullivan
← 2003/04 2005/06 →

The 2004/05 snooker season was a series of snooker tournaments that were part of the Main Tour . As in the previous year, there were nine competitions on the program. In addition to seven world ranking tournaments, there were two invitation tournaments in which only titles and prize money were awarded, but no world ranking list points.

After more than 20 years, including a two-year break in the early 1990s, the Scottish Open (last held as the "Players Championship") fell out of the tournament schedule. In its place, after the increasing popularity of snooker in Asia, the China Open was resumed after a two-year break and promptly won by the Chinese qualifier Ding Junhui . The British Open lost its status as a world ranking tournament this season and were only rated as an invitation tournament. The Irish Masters was also part of the tour for the last time this year .

The season lasted from October 2, 2004 to May 2, 2005.

Season results

The following table shows the final results of this season.

date	competition	venue	Art	winner	Final opponent	Result
October 2 to October 10, 2004	Grand Prix 2004	Preston	World ranking tournament	Ronnie O'Sullivan	Ian McCulloch	9: 5
November 2004	Merseyside Professional 2004	Liverpool	Non-ranking tournament	Joe Perry	Stephen Croft	5: 2
November 8th to November 14th, 2004	British Open 2004	Brighton	World ranking tournament	John Higgins	Stephen Maguire	9: 6
November 15 to November 28, 2004	UK Championship 2004	York	World ranking tournament	Stephen Maguire	David Gray	10: 1
January 17 to January 23, 2005	Welsh Open 2005	Newport	World ranking tournament	Ronnie O'Sullivan	Stephen Hendry	9: 8
January 31 to February 6, 2005	Malta Cup 2005	Portomaso	World ranking tournament	Stephen Hendry	Graeme Dott	9: 7
February 13 to February 20, 2005	Masters 2005	Wembley	Invitation tournament	Ronnie O'Sullivan	John Higgins	10: 3
March 6 to March 13, 2005	Irish Masters 2005	Dublin	World ranking tournament	Ronnie O'Sullivan	Matthew Stevens	10: 8
March 27 to April 3, 2005	China Open 2005	Beijing	World ranking tournament	Ding Junhui *	Stephen Hendry	9: 5
April 16 to May 2, 2005	World Championship 2005	Sheffield	World ranking tournament	Shaun Murphy	Matthew Stevens	18:16

* Since Ding Junhui received a wild card to participate in the tournament and therefore did not have to qualify in terms of sport, he did not receive any world ranking points for winning the tournament.

World ranking

The snooker world ranking is only updated after each full season and takes into account the performance of the past two seasons. The following table shows the 32 best placed players in the 2004/05 season, based on the results from 2002/03 and 2003/04 . The previous year's position is given in brackets.

Place 1 - 8		Place 9 - 16		17th - 24th place		Place 25 - 32
1	Ronnie O'Sullivan (3)	9	Stephen Lee (5)	17th	Ian McCulloch (26)	25th	Anthony Hamilton (20)
2	Mark Williams (1)	10	Alan McManus (10)	18th	Quinten Hann (14)	26th	Gerard Greene (38)
3	Stephen Hendry (2)	11	Jimmy White (15)	19th	Ali Carter (17)	27	Drew Henry (25)
4th	Paul Hunter (8)	12	Chris Small (18)	20th	Joe Perry (16)	28	Robert Milkins (21)
5	John Higgins (4)	13	Steve Davis (11)	21st	Barry Pinches (36)	29	Michael Holt (39)
6th	Matthew Stevens (9)	14th	David Gray (12)	22nd	Tony Drago (24)	30th	Joe Swail (27)
7th	Ken Doherty (6)	15th	Graeme Dott (13)	23	Mark King (22)	31	John Parrott (30)
8th	Peter Ebdon (7)	16	Marco Fu (19)	24	Stephen Maguire (41)	32	Dominic Dale (28)