1999 Benson & Hedges Masters

Tournament information
Dates	7–14 February 1999 (1999-02-07 – 1999-02-14)
Venue	Wembley Conference Centre
City	London
Country	England
Organisation	WPBSA
Format	Non-ranking event
Total prize fund	£575,000
Winner's share	£155,000
Highest break	Mark Williams (WAL) (123)
Final
Champion	John Higgins (SCO)
Runner-up	Ken Doherty (IRL)
Score	10–8
← 1998 2000 →

The 1999 Masters (officially the 1999 Benson & Hedges Masters) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 7 and 14 February 1999 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England. The wild-card matches were extended from 9 to 11 frames.

John Higgins defeated Ken Doherty 10–8 in the final to win his first Masters title. He had also won the World title (where he also defeated Doherty) and UK title in 1998, meaning that at the time he held all three Triple Crown titles simultaneously. Before his semi-final match Higgins had said, referring to the possibility of holding all three titles, "That triple crown would be a dream but it's going to be tough."^[1] After his win, the term "Triple Crown" was used in a number of newspapers to describe Higgins' feat.^[2][3]

Field

Defending champion Mark Williams was the number 1 seed with World Champion John Higgins seeded 2. 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, David Gray (ranked 61), and Jimmy White (ranked 18), who was the wild-card selection. David Gray and Mark King were making their debuts in the Masters.

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:^[4]
Winner: £155,000
Runner-up: £80,000
Semi-finalist: £40,000
Quarter finalist: £26,000
Last 16: £15,000
Wild-card round: £9,000

High break Prize: £18,000
Maximum break: B&H Gold Award and a Honda car

Total: £575,000

Wild-card round

In the preliminary round, the wild-card players plays the 15th and 16th seeds:^[4][5]

Match	Date		Score
WC1	Sunday 7 February	James Wattana (THA) (15)	6–2	David Gray (ENG)
WC2	Sunday 7 February	Mark King (ENG) (16)	6–5	Jimmy White (ENG)

Main draw

^[4][5]

	Last 16 Best of 11 frames					Quarter-finals Best of 11 frames					Semi-finals Best of 11 frames					Final Best of 19 frames
	1	Mark Williams (WAL)	6
	13	Nigel Bond (ENG)	0
						1	Mark Williams	4
						8	Alan McManus	6
	8	Alan McManus (SCO)	6
	9	Stephen Lee (ENG)	2
											8	Alan McManus	3
											5	Ken Doherty	6
	5	Ken Doherty (IRL)	6
	14	Steve Davis (ENG)	4
						5	Ken Doherty	6
						4	Ronnie O'Sullivan	2
	4	Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG)	6
	15	James Wattana (THA)	5
																5	Ken Doherty	8
																2	John Higgins	10
	3	Stephen Hendry (SCO)	4
	10	Tony Drago (MLT)	6
						10	Tony Drago	5
						11	Anthony Hamilton	6
	6	John Parrott (ENG)	4
	11	Anthony Hamilton (ENG)	6
											11	Anthony Hamilton	3
											2	John Higgins	6
	7	Peter Ebdon (ENG)	5
	16	Mark King (ENG)	6
						16	Mark King	1
						2	John Higgins	6
	2	John Higgins (SCO)	6
	12	Alain Robidoux (CAN)	1

Final

Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee: Jan Verhass Wembley Conference Centre, London, England, 14 February 1999.[4]
Ken Doherty (5)  Ireland	8–10	John Higgins (2)  Scotland
Afternoon: 31–83, 69–52, 60–66 (66), 34–61, 72–1, 27–80 (76), 76–31, 56–21 Evening: 0–78 (78), 20–88, 97–29 (90), 109–0 (109), 73–10 (59), 95–7 (95) 0–88 (64), 43–81, 15–69, 35–72
109	Highest break	78
1	Century breaks	0
4	50+ breaks	4

Qualifying

David Gray won the qualifying tournament, known as the 1998 Benson & Hedges Championship at the time.^[6]

Century breaks

Total: 12^[7]

• 123 – Mark Williams
• 121, 116, 113, 107, 105 – Tony Drago
• 115 – James Wattana
• 112, 104 – John Higgins
• 109, 104 – Ken Doherty
• 104 – Alan McManus

James Wattana's century was scored in the wild-card round.

References