The 2023 Masters (officially the 2023 Cazoo Masters) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place from 8 to 15 January 2023 at Alexandra Palace in London, England. It was the 49th staging of the Masters, which was first held in 1975, and the second of three Triple Crown events in the 2022–23 snooker season, following the 2022 UK Championship and preceding the 2023 World Snooker Championship. Organised by the World Snooker Tour and sponsored by car retailer Cazoo, the tournament was broadcast by the BBC domestically, by Eurosport in Europe, and by Matchroom Sport and other broadcasters elsewhere in the world. The winner received £250,000 from a total prize pool of £725,000.
The top 16 players in the snooker world rankings as they stood after the UK Championship were invited to the event. However, the sport's governing body subsequently suspended invitees Yan Bingtao and Zhao Xintong from professional competition amid a match-fixing investigation. Yan was replaced in the draw by David Gilbert. Zhao was replaced by Hossein Vafaei, who was the only Masters debutant and the first Iranian player to compete in the tournament.
Neil Robertson was the defending champion, having defeated Barry Hawkins 10–4 in the 2022 final. However, Robertson lost 4–6 to Shaun Murphy in the first round. Mark Williams reached the final for the first time in 20 years, becoming the oldest finalist since Ray Reardon in 1983. Judd Trump defeated Williams 10–8 in the final to capture his second Masters title, becoming the 11th player to win the title more than once. There were 30 century breaks at the tournament. The highest break prize was shared by Trump, Vafaei, and Williams, who all made 143 breaks in their quarter-final matches.
Overview The Masters is a non-ranking snooker tournament that was first held in 1975 for ten invited players at the West Centre Hotel in London. John Spencer won the inaugural event, defeating Ray Reardon on a in the deciding frame of the final. The Masters is the second-longest-running professional snooker tournament, after the World Snooker Championship. The most successful player in its history is Ronnie O'Sullivan, who has won the title seven times, most recently in 2017.
Organised by the World Snooker Tour and sponsored by car retailer Cazoo, the 2023 event was the 49th staging of the tournament. The second Triple Crown event of the 2022–23 snooker season, following the 2022 UK Championship and preceding the 2023 World Snooker Championship, it took place from 8 to 15 January 2023 at Alexandra Palace in London. Matches were played as the best of 11 until the final, which was the best of 19 frames and played over two .
The tournament was broadcast live in the United Kingdom by BBC Sport and in Europe by Eurosport. It was broadcast in China by China Central Television and Superstars Online and streamed by Huya, Youku, Migu, Douyin, and Kuaishou. It was broadcast by Now TV in Hong Kong, by DAZN in Brazil and the United States, by Fastsports HD in Pakistan, by Astro SuperSport in Malaysia, by Sport Cast in Taiwan and Indonesia, by TrueVisions in Thailand, and by Premier Sports Network and TapGO in the Philippines. In all other territories, the event was streamed by Matchroom Sport.
Participants The 16 highest-ranked players after the 2022 UK Championship were invited to participate in the tournament. The defending champion was Australia's Neil Robertson, who won the tournament for a second time at the 2022 Masters by defeating England's Barry Hawkins 10–4 in the final. Robertson was seeded first for the event as defending champion, while O'Sullivan was seeded second as the reigning world champion. The next six players in the world rankings were seeded and allocated fixed positions in the draw, with the remaining eight participants drawn randomly against them. The first-round draw was made during the UK Championship final, which was contested by Mark Allen and Ding Junhui on 20 November 2022.
Ding would have re-entered the top 16 and been invited to the event had he won the UK Championship, but Allen defeated him, so the last Masters spot went to 2021 champion Yan Bingtao, who was ranked 16th in the world at the cutoff. Yan was drawn against seventh seed Mark Williams. However, on 12 December 2022, the sport's governing body, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, suspended Yan amid a match-fixing investigation, making him ineligible to compete in or attend any World Snooker Tour event. David Gilbert, ranked 17th in the world after the UK Championship, replaced Yan in the draw. On 3 January 2023, the WPBSA suspended the world number nine Zhao Xintong, who had been drawn against third seed Mark Selby in the first round, as part of the same investigation. Hossein Vafaei, ranked 18th after the UK Championship, replaced Zhao in the draw. Vafaei was the only Masters debutant at the 2023 event and the first Iranian player to compete in the tournament.
Prize money The winner of the event received £250,000 from a total prize pool of £725,000. The breakdown of prize money for the event is shown below:
Winner: £250,000 Runner-up: £100,000 Semi-finals: £60,000 Quarter-finals: £30,000 Last 16: £15,000 Highest break: £15,000 Total: £725,000
Summary
First round The first round was played from 8 to 11 January as the best of 11 frames. On the opening afternoon, 2015 winner Shaun Murphy faced the defending champion Robertson, who won the first frame. Murphy then won five consecutive frames, making a century break in frame six after a from Robertson, to move one frame from victory. However, Robertson won the next three frames, including a maximum break attempt in the ninth, which ended when he missed the 14th . Robertson had chances in the tenth to force a but missed a key shot on the after potting the penultimate red, which allowed Murphy to clinch the match 6–4. Afterwards, Robertson said that a bad flu had affected his preparation for the event as well as his performance in the match. In the evening, debutant Vafaei faced three-time winner Selby. The scores were tied at 2–2 at the mid-session interval, but Vafaei won all four frames played after the interval for a 6–2 victory, making two centuries and three in the match. It was the third consecutive time Vafaei had beaten Selby, after eliminating him in the previous two UK Championships; it was also the ninth consecutive year Selby had lost at either the first-round or quarter-final stage, having last reached the semi-finals in 2014. Vafaei paid tribute to Selby, calling him a "tough opponent" and a "legend", and commented: "Am I asleep or awake? Honestly I can't believe it".
Luca Brecel faced world number one O'Sullivan, who took the opening frame with a 97 break and won both the second and third on the after errors from his opponent. Although Brecel made a century break to win frame four, O’Sullivan responded with back-to-back centuries of 134 and 104 before wrapping up a 6–1 victory in frame seven. O'Sullivan commented: "It is not easy to play under pressure and I sensed that Luca felt a little uncomfortable and I tried to make the most of that and punish every mistake he made". In the evening, Jack Lisowski, who had won just four frames across his three previous Masters appearances, faced two-time winner John Higgins, who was playing in the tournament for a record-extending 29th time. Higgins made a 142 break in the third frame but Lisowski led 3–1 at the interval. Higgins won frame five, but Lisowski made a century in the sixth and came from 55 points behind to win the seventh. Higgins attempted a maximum break in frame eight but missed the ninth black; he won the frame after Lisowski missed the last red. Lisowski clinched his first Masters victory in frame nine, making a 93 break to win 6–3. He commented afterwards that the event had "always overawed me but the crowd were incredible and kept lifting me. I've broken my duck". Higgins expressed frustration at his errors in the match and said he was considering working with a sports psychologist.
The 2018 winner Allen faced two-time runner-up Hawkins, who trailed by 55 points in the opening frame but recovered to win it on the colours. Hawkins took the next two with breaks of 76 and 114 and won frame four on the colours after Allen missed the brown to a pocket. Hawkins took the fifth with breaks of 45 and 41. In the sixth, Allen missed a rest shot while on a 45 break and then made a safety mistake with two reds remaining that let Hawkins close out a 6–0 whitewash. It was Allen's fifth consecutive first-round defeat since winning the tournament and also made him the fourth consecutive UK champion to lose in the first round of the Masters. Allen praised Hawkins's safety play, saying: "It was probably one of the best safety performances I have ever played against as a professional". In the evening, two-time winner Williams faced Gilbert, who had reached the semi-finals on both his previous appearances in the tournament. Williams won the first two frames with back-to-back centuries of 126 and 127 and took the third with a 95 break. After Gilbert missed a rest shot on the penultimate red in the fourth, Williams cleared to lead 4–0 at the interval. Gilbert won the fifth frame with a 59 break, and produced an 80 clearance in the sixth from 42 points behind, reducing his deficit to two frames. Even though Gilbert also made half-centuries in the next two frames, Williams won the seventh after a safety exchange on the last red and won the eighth on the colours to wrap up a 6–2 victory. Williams, referee Marcel Eckardt, and a cameraman all became involved in trying to swat a wasp during the final frame before the referee asked Williams to continue play.
The 2019 winner Judd Trump faced the season's British Open winner Ryan Day. The scores were tied at 3–3 after Trump made a 105 century, the highest break of the match, in the sixth frame. Day won the next two frames to move one from victory, and the ninth frame went to a re-spotted black. Day missed a pot to a baulk pocket that would have won the match, and Trump potted the black to take the frame. Day led in the tenth but missed the black after potting the last red, and Trump tied the scores at 5–5. In the deciding frame, Day played a into the while potting the black but when a red dropped into the middle pocket. Trump made a 58 break to leave Day . However, with one red remaining, Trump failed to escape from a snooker and conceded a . Day could have won the match by clearing from the free ball but missed his nominated brown to the middle pocket, and Trump potted the last red to win 6–5. "I was a bit nervous at the start and it took going 5–3 behind to feel like the weight was lifted off me to go for my shots", said Trump. In the final first-round match, 2018 runner-up Kyren Wilson faced 2020 winner Stuart Bingham, who won the first two frames with back-to-back centuries of 102 and 109. Bingham took the third after Wilson missed a pot on the blue and won the fourth with an 85 break. He made a 127, his third century of the match, to take a 5–0 lead. Wilson won the next two frames with breaks of 90 and 81 and won the eighth on the colours to reduce his deficit to two frames. However, Bingham sealed a 6–3 victory with a pot on the yellow in frame nine after a safety error from Wilson. “At 5–0 I was cruising then Kyren showed his true grit and made a fight of it. In the end I was lucky to get through", Bingham commented. Wilson said: "I was proud of the way I came back. I just played a couple of bad safeties in the last frame”.
Quarter-finals