1994 Masters (snooker)

The 1994 Benson & Hedges Masters was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 6 and 13 February 1994 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England.

Benson & Hedges Masters

Tournament information
Dates	6–13 February 1994
Venue	Wembley Conference Centre
City	London
Country	England
Organisation(s)	WPBSA
Format	Non-ranking event
Highest break	Alan McManus (132)
Final
Champion	Alan McManus
Runner-up	Stephen Hendry
Score	9–8
← 1993 1995 →

Defending champion Stephen Hendry met Alan McManus in the final. Hendry had won the previous five Masters tournaments and was undefeated in 23 matches since making his debut in 1989. By comparison McManus had lost all six of the important finals he had contested since his first final, the 1992 Asian Open. The previous week he had lost to Steve Davis in the final of the Welsh Open. McManus won the first three frames, but Hendry won the next three to level the match, including a break of 115 in frame 5, Hendry's first century of the tournament. McManus won the 7th frame to take a 4–3 lead at the end of the afternoon session. Hendry had breaks of 80, 49, 62 and 58 to win four of the first five frames in the evening and take a 7–5 lead. McManus had missed a simple black to lose frame 10 after he had needed three snookers. McManus levelled the match again by winning the next two frames before losing frame 15 and winning a tense frame 16. In the deciding frame Hendry missed an ambitious plant after which McManus made a 76 break, Hendry conceding with only 59 on the table. McManus won the first prize of £115,000.[1][2] He also won a further £10,000 for making the highest break of the tournament, a 132 total clearance in the sixth frame of his first round match against Nigel Bond.[3][4]

Field

Stephen Hendry, 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, Ronnie O'Sullivan (ranked 57), and Peter Ebdon (ranked 21), who was the wild-card selection. Peter Ebdon, David Roe and 18-year-old Ronnie O'Sullivan were making their debuts in the Masters.

Wild-card round

In the preliminary round, the qualifier and wild-card players played the 15th and 16th seeds:[5][6]

Match	Date		Score
WC1	Sunday 6 February	Dennis Taylor (15)	5–1	Ronnie O'Sullivan
WC2	Monday 7 February	David Roe (16)	1–5	Peter Ebdon

Main draw

[5][6]

	Last 16 Best of 9 frames					Quarter-finals Best of 9 frames					Semi-finals Best of 11 frames					Final Best of 17 frames
	1	Stephen Hendry	5
	10	Darren Morgan	2
						1	Stephen Hendry	5
						13	Steve James	2
	8	Terry Griffiths	4
	13	Steve James	5
											1	Stephen Hendry	6
											5	James Wattana	2
	5	James Wattana	5
	12	Martin Clark	4
						5	James Wattana	5
							Peter Ebdon	4
	4	Steve Davis	2
		Peter Ebdon	5
																1	Stephen Hendry	8
																6	Alan McManus	9
	3	Jimmy White	0
	11	Ken Doherty	5
						11	Ken Doherty	1
						6	Alan McManus	5
	6	Alan McManus	5
	9	Nigel Bond	2
											6	Alan McManus	6
											14	Neal Foulds	4
	7	Willie Thorne	0
	15	Dennis Taylor	5
						15	Dennis Taylor	1
						14	Neal Foulds	5
	2	John Parrott	3
	14	Neal Foulds	5

Final

Final: Best of 17 frames. Referee: Alan Chamberlain. Wembley Conference Centre, London, England, 13 February 1994.[1][2]
Stephen Hendry (1)  Scotland	8–9	Alan McManus (6)  Scotland
Afternoon: 46–83 (83), 25–78 (55), 52–63, 83–0, 127–0 (115), 75–43 (67), 21–67 (61) Evening: 80–32 (80), 30–68, 73–61, 72–21 (62), 71–29 (58), 23–62, 1–61, 105–14 (69), 50–72, 0–76 (76)
115	Highest break	83
1	Century breaks	0
6	50+ breaks	4

Qualifying

Ronnie O'Sullivan won the qualifying tournament, known as the 1993 Benson & Hedges Championship at the time.[7]

Century breaks

Total: 7[8]

• 132 Alan McManus
• 130, 104 James Wattana
• 119 Ken Doherty
• 115 Stephen Hendry
• 113, 112 Peter Ebdon

Peter Ebdon's 112 was scored in the wild-card round.

References

1. Yates, Phil (14 February 1994). "McManus edges out Hendry to claim first title". The Times. p. 24.
2. "McManus arrives: Benson and Hedges Masters". The Independent. 14 February 1994. p. 32 – via Newsbank.
3. "Big Mac – Alan's a Master". Daily Mirror. 14 February 1994. p. 32 – via Newsbank.
4. Yates, Phil (8 February 1994). "Nervous Foulds recaptured art of winning". The Times. p. 40.
5. "1994 Masters Results". Snooker Database. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
6. "The Masters". Snooker Scene. Archived from the original on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
7. Turner, Chris. "Benson & Hedges Championship, Masters Qualifying Tournament". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 February 2012. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
8. "1994 Masters". CueTracker - Snooker Results and Statistics Database. Retrieved 19 January 2015.