The 2006 Masters (officially the 2006 SAGA Insurance Masters) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place from 15 to 22 January 2006 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England. It was the 32nd edition of the tournament, and the last time that the tournament was held at this venue. The tournament was part of the 2005/2006 season.
John Higgins won his 2nd Masters title by defeating defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–9 in a reverse of last year's final.
Field Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan was the number 1 seed with World Champion Shaun Murphy seeded 2. Places were allocated to the leading players in the world rankings. With Murphy having a ranking of 21, Ian McCulloch, ranked 16, was not an automatic invitation. Players seeded 15 and 16 played in the wild-card round against the winner of the qualifying event, Stuart Bingham (ranked 37), and McCulloch, who was the wild-card selection. Stuart Bingham and Ian McCulloch were making their debuts in the Masters.
Prize fund The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:
Qualifying stage Winner: £2,000 Runner-up: £680 Semi-final: £250 Quarter-final: £105 Total: £3,600
Televised stage
Winner: £125,000 Runner Up: £60,000 Semi-final: £30,000 Quarter-final: £15,000 Last 16: £10,000 Last 18 (seeded): £10,000 Last 18 (wild-cards): £2,000
Highest break: £10,000 Maximum break: £25,000
Wild-card round
In the preliminary "wild-card round", the two wild-card players were drawn against the players seeded 15th and 16th:
Match Date Score WC1 Sunday 15 January (15) 3–6 WC2 Sunday 15 January (16) 4–6
Main draw
Final Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee: Eirian WilliamsWembley Conference Centre, London, England, 22 January 2006. Ronnie O'Sullivan (1) 9–10 John Higgins (7) Afternoon: 60–48, , , , , , , Evening: 91–44 (91), , , , , , , , , , 139 Highest break 80 3 Century breaks 0 7 50+ breaks 6
Qualifying The 2005 Masters Qualifying Event was held between 20 and 23 November 2005 at Pontin's in Prestatyn, Wales. The winner who qualified for the tournament, was Stuart Bingham.
Century breaks
Televised stage centuries Total: 11 139, 138, 100 Ronnie O'Sullivan 138, 100 Peter Ebdon 116, 102 Graeme Dott 115, 101 Shaun Murphy 110 John Higgins 101 Stephen Lee
Qualifying stage centuries
147, 114, 109, 101 Stuart Bingham 140, 106, 100 Fergal O'Brien 132, 120, 116, 116 Ding Junhui 132, 106, 101 Barry Hawkins 130, 100 Ryan Day 127, 105 Judd Trump 127 Jamie Cope 125, 117, 114, 111 Robin Hull
125, 102, 101 Joe Swail 122 Michael Judge 120 Ricky Walden 114 Patrick Wallace 112, 100 Alfie Burden 111 James Tatton 110 Lee Spick 107 Ali Carter
References