The 2003 European Open was a professional snooker tournament and the fifth of eight WPBSA ranking events in the 2002/2003 season, following the Welsh Open. It was held from 11 to 16 March 2003 at the Palace Hotel in Torquay, England. This marked the first and only time when any of the editions of this tournament was not held outside the British Isles. Ronnie O'Sullivan won his 12th ranking title by defeating Stephen Hendry 9–6 in the final. O'Sullivan went on to win back-to-back ranking titles – his next coming at the 2003 Irish Masters, just two weeks later, where he triumphed over John Higgins in a deciding frame.
Tournament summary Defending champion Stephen Hendry was the number 1 seed with World Champion Peter Ebdon 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: £44,000 Final: £22,000 Semi-final: £11,000 Quarter-final: £6,800 Last 16: £4,000 Last 32: £2,600 Last 48: £1,450 Last 64: £1,050
Last 80: £700 Last 96: £375 Stage one highest break: £1,000 Stage two highest break: £3,000 Stage one maximum break: £5,000 Stage two maximum break: £20,000 Total: £250,000
Main draw
Final Final: Best of 17 frames. Referee: Jan Verhaas.Palace Hotel, Torquay, England, 16 March 2003. Stephen Hendry (1) 6–9 Ronnie O'Sullivan (3)Afternoon: 0–140 (140), 100–11, 101–7 (101), 0–76 (76), 5–65 (52), 3–131 (126), 8–76 (76), 88–33 (88)Evening: 0–142 (142), 97–25 (53), 123–1 (117), 0–77 (77), 72–37 (72), 50–79 (Hendry 50), 0–79 (79) 117 Highest break 142 2 Century breaks 3 6 50+ breaks 8
Qualifying
Round 1 Best of 9 frames
Craig Butler 5–3 Manan Chandra Peter Lines 0–5 Simon Bedford Sean Storey 5–2 Pang Weiguo Jason Prince 5–2 Ricky Walden Phaitoon Phonbun 5–2 Hugh Abernethy Adrian Gunnell 5–1 Atthasit Mahitthi Jason Ferguson 5–4 Jamie Cope Stephen Kershaw 5–3 Peter Roscoe Kristján Helgason 5–4 David Gilbert John Read w/o–w/d Matthew Farrant Andrew Higginson 5–0 Justin Astley Andrew Norman 5–2 James Reynolds Paul Wykes 5–0 Colm Gilcreest Martin Dziewialtowski w/o–w/d Eddie Manning Matthew Couch 5–0 Jimmy Robertson Paul Davies 5–0 Leo Fernandez
Neal Foulds 3–5 David John Euan Henderson w/d–w/o Jin Long Paul Davison 1–5 Bob Chaperon Jeff Cundy 3–5 Stefan Mazrocis Shaun Murphy 5–1 Jason Weston Luke Fisher 5–1 Lee Spick Joe Johnson 4–5 David McLellan Rod Lawler 5–2 Mario Wehrman Troy Shaw 5–2 Darren Clarke Alain Robidoux 5–3 Mark Gray Antony Bolsover 5–2 David Donovan Rory McLeod 3–5 Munraj Pal Lee Walker 2–5 Kwan Poomjang Ryan Day 4–5 Matthew Selt Wayne Brown 5–4 Johl Younger Tony Jones 3–5 Nick Pearce
Round 2–5
Century breaks
Qualifying stage centuries
140 Barry Pinches 138, 111 Robert Milkins 133, 133, 101 Adrian Gunnell 131, 115 Stephen Maguire 130 Antony Bolsover 128 Marco Fu 128 Ali Carter 121 Jin Long 119 David Gray 114, 103 Stefan Mazrocis 114 Andrew Higginson
113, 111 Troy Shaw 113 Mike Dunn 113 Luke Fisher 109, 106 Barry Hawkins 108 Shaun Murphy 101 Mark Davis 101 Bjorn Haneveer 100 Sean Storey 100 Rod Lawler 100 Munraj Pal
Televised stage centuries
142, 140, 139, 129, 126, 121, 112, 102 Ronnie O'Sullivan 136 Mark King 132 Paul Hunter 123, 117, 110, 101 Stephen Hendry 118 Mark Williams
113, 111 Peter Ebdon 112 John Higgins 102 Robin Hull 101 Stephen Lee
References