The 2006 Welsh Open was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 27 February and 5 March at the Newport Centre in Newport, Wales.
Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion, but he lost his last 32 match against Ian McCulloch.
Stephen Lee won his fourth ranking title by defeating World Champion Shaun Murphy 9–4.
Tournament summary
Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan was the number 1 seed with World Champion Shaun Murphy seeded 2. The remaining places were allocated to players based on the world rankings.
Prize fund The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:
Winner: £35,000 Runner-up: £17,500 Semi-final: £8,750 Quarter-final: £6,500 Last 16: £4,275 Last 32: £2,750
Last 48: £1,725 Last 64: £1,325 Highest break: £2,000 Maximum break: £20,000 Total: £225,000
Main draw
Final Final: Best of 17 frames. Referee: Eirian Williams.Newport Centre, Newport, Wales, 5 March 2006. Stephen Lee (11) 9–4 Shaun Murphy (2) Afternoon: 86–6, 74–0, , , , , , Evening: 88–0 (62), 39–64, , , 120 Highest break 52 1 Century breaks 0 3 50+ breaks 2
Qualifying
Qualifying for the tournament took place at Pontin's in Prestatyn, Wales between 24 January and 26 January 2006.
Century breaks
Qualifying stage centuries
139 Michael Judge 135, 125 Scott MacKenzie 135, 104 Lee Spick 131, 106, 104 Ding Junhui 130, 124, 100 Dave Gilbert 130 Matthew Couch 124 Dominic Dale 124 Ricky Walden
119 Fergal O'Brien 112, 108 Stuart Bingham 111, 102 Jamie Cope 111 Patrick Wallace 106 Dave Harold 103 Andrew Norman 102 Mark Allen 100 David Roe
Televised stage centuries
144 Robert Milkins 141 Dave Harold 138 Matthew Stevens 135, 122, 113, 100 Ryan Day 134, 120, 106, 102 Shaun Murphy 133 Stephen Hendry 131 Steve Davis 128, 104, 102 Barry Hawkins
122, 110 Ian McCulloch 120, 100 Stephen Lee 120 Joe Perry 111 Neil Robertson 107 Liang Wenbo 103 Scott MacKenzie 100 Anthony Hamilton 100 John Higgins
References