Dates 1–8 February 2004 Country England Format Non-ranking event | City London Organisation(s) WPBSA | |
Venue Wembley Conference Centre | ||
The 2004 Masters was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 1–8 February 2004 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England.
Contents
At the start of the competition 16-year-old Chinese Ding Junhui caused a stir by defeating Joe Perry 6–3 on his television début. He then faced Stephen Lee in the next round, but lost 5–6 despite leading 5–2.
Paul Hunter went on to win his third title in four years by defeating Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–9. Hunter trailed O'Sullivan throughout the entire match, before pipping him to the trophy in the final frame. In fact, Hunter trailed 1–6, 2–7, 6–8 and 7–9 before reeling off the final three frames to seal the sixth title of his professional career.
This was the first Masters not to be sponsored by Benson and Hedges, who had sponsored the tournament since it started in 1975, after the ban on tobacco advertising came into effect in summer 2003. This year's competition was unsponsored.
Field
Mark Williams, the defending champion and World Champion was the number 1 seed. 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, Neil Robertson, and Ding Junhui, who was the wild-card selection. Neil Robertson and Ding Junhui were making their debuts in the Masters.
Qualifying
The 2004 Masters Qualifying Event was held between 15 and 21 December 2003 at Pontin's in Prestatyn, Wales. The winner of this series of matches, who qualified for the tournament, was Neil Robertson.