The 2000 Masters (officially the 2000 Benson & Hedges Masters) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 6 and 13 February 2000 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England.
Matthew Stevens won the title on his second attempt after 1996 by defeating Ken Doherty, who had made his second final in a row, 10–8. On the 15th frame of the final, Doherty attempted a maximum break, but he missed the final black at 140. This was the highest break of the tournament.
Field Defending champion John Higgins was the number 1 seed with World Champion Stephen Hendry seeded 2. Places were allocated to the top 16 players in the world rankings. Players seeded 15 and 16 played in the wild-card round against the winner of the qualifying event, Ali Carter (ranked 142), and Marco Fu (ranked 35), who was the wild-card selection. Ali Carter, Marco Fu and Fergal O'Brien were making their debuts in the Masters.
Wild-card round In the preliminary round, the wild-card players plays the 15th and 16th seeds:
Match Date Score WC1 Monday 7 February (15) 5–6 WC2 Sunday 6 February (16) 6–3
Main draw
Final
Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee: Alan Chamberlain Wembley Conference Centre, London, England, 13 February 2000. Matthew Stevens (9) 10–8 Ken Doherty (7) Afternoon: 126–4 (118), 61–51 (Stevens 50), 50–68, 96–0 (96), 85–22 (65), 87–0 (87), 2–102 (78), 59–70Evening: 122–0 (122), 17–83 (60), 72–47 (56), 9–96, 58–14, 78–34 (61), 0–144 (140), 22–82, 0–85 (85), 101–1 (63) 122 Highest break 140 2 Century breaks 1 9 50+ breaks 4
Qualifying Ali Carter won the qualifying tournament, known as the 1999 Benson & Hedges Championship at the time. Karl Burrows made his only maximum break against Adrian Rosa.
Century breaks Total: 13 140, 118, 104 Ken Doherty 137, 106, 104 Stephen Hendry 126, 113 Ronnie O'Sullivan 122, 118 Matthew Stevens 117 Jimmy White 112 Anthony Hamilton 101 Stephen Lee
Jimmy White's century was scored in the wild-card round.
References