The 2008 Malta Cup was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 4 and 10 February 2008 at the Hilton Conference Center in Portomaso, Malta.
The Gambling Commission looked at allegations of match-fixing during the round-robin stage of the tournament.
Shaun Murphy won the title by defeating Ken Doherty 9–3 in the final.
Prize fund The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below: Winner: £20,000 Runner-Up: £9,000 Semi-final: £4,500 2nd place in group: £2,750 3rd place in group: £2,500 4th place in group: £2,250 5th place in group: £2,000 Maximum break: £10,000 Total: £76,000
Group stage Group matches were played over 6 frames. A win was worth 2 points and a tie 1 point. The top player from each group qualified to the semi-finals.
Group 1
POSPlayerMPMWMTMLFWFLFDPTS1 John Higgins4310186+1272 Joe Perry42111212053 Ryan Day41211212044 Ali Carter41121212035 Alex Borg4013618−121
John Higgins 6–0 Alex Borg Joe Perry 3–3 Ryan Day John Higgins 4–2 Ryan Day Ali Carter 5–1 Alex Borg Joe Perry 4–2 Alex Borg John Higgins 3–3 Ali Carter Joe Perry 4–2 Ali Carter Ryan Day 3–3 Alex Borg John Higgins 5–1 Joe Perry Ali Carter 2–4 Ryan Day
Group 2
POSPlayerMPMWMTMLFWFLFDPTS1 Ken Doherty4400186+1282 Marco Fu4211159+653 Neil Robertson42111311+254 Stephen Lee4103915−625 Joe Swail4004519−140
Ken Doherty 4–2 Marco Fu Neil Robertson 5–1 Stephen Lee Ken Doherty 4–2 Stephen Lee Joe Swail 1–5 Marco Fu Ken Doherty 5–1 Joe Swail Neil Robertson 3–3 Marco Fu Neil Robertson 4–2 Joe Swail Stephen Lee 1–5 Marco Fu Ken Doherty 5–1 Neil Robertson Joe Swail 1–5 Stephen Lee
Group 3
POSPlayerMPMWMTMLFWFLFDPTS1 Shaun Murphy4400195+1482 Stephen Hendry42111212053 Stephen Maguire41211212+044 Mark Selby41121113−235 Tony Drago4004618−120
Shaun Murphy 6–0 Tony Drago Stephen Hendry 4–2 Mark Selby Stephen Maguire 4–2 Tony Drago Shaun Murphy 4–2 Mark Selby Stephen Hendry 4–2 Tony Drago Shaun Murphy 4–2 Stephen Maguire Mark Selby 4–2 Tony Drago Stephen Hendry 3–3 Stephen Maguire Shaun Murphy 5–1 Stephen Hendry Stephen Maguire 3–3 Mark Selby
Group 4
POSPlayerMPMWMTMLFWFLFDPTS1 Ding Junhui4310177+1072 Dominic Dale43011410+463 Peter Ebdon41121113−234 Mark Williams4112915−635 Graeme Dott4013915−61
Graeme Dott 2–4 Dominic Dale Peter Ebdon 2–4 Ding Junhui Graeme Dott 3–3 Ding Junhui Mark Williams 2–4 Dominic Dale Graeme Dott 2–4 Mark Williams Peter Ebdon 2–4 Dominic Dale Mark Williams 3–3 Peter Ebdon Ding Junhui 4–2 Dominic Dale Graeme Dott 2–4 Peter Ebdon Mark Williams 0–6 Ding Junhui
Knock-out stage
Final Final: Best of 17 framesHilton Conference Center, Portomaso, Malta, 10 February 2008. Ken Doherty 3–9 Shaun Murphy Afternoon: 91–1 (91), , , , , , , Evening: 0–110 (75), , , 91 Highest break 76 0 Century breaks 0 1 50+ breaks 2
Century breaks
137, 110, 104 Shaun Murphy 134, 127, 118 Ken Doherty 129, 100 Ali Carter 128, 103 Peter Ebdon 127, 125, 125, 123, 106 Ding Junhui 127, 110, 101 Mark Selby 116, 107 Neil Robertson 113 Ryan Day 108, 106, 101 Marco Fu 103 Stephen Hendry
References