The 2004 Masters was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament held in February 2004. It was the 30th staging of the Masters tournament, one of three Triple Crown events on the Snooker Tour, the eighth of fifteen World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) events in the 2003/2004 season, and was held at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, United Kingdom from 1 to 8 February 2004. The tournament was broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC.
Paul Hunter won the tournament, defeating 1995 winner and world number three Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–9, claiming the third Masters title of his career in four years. Hunter joined Cliff Thorburn and Stephen Hendry as the third player to win the Masters three or more times. In the semi-finals, Hunter defeated John Higgins 6–3 and O'Sullivan beat Jimmy White 6–4. O'Sullivan compiled a 138 break, the highest of the tournament, in the second frame of his semi-final match against White.
Tournament summary
Background
The Masters was first held in 1975 at the West Centre Hotel with the sport's top ten ranking players invited to participate. It moved to the New London Theatre the following year, before it resided at the Wembley Conference Centre in 1979 where all editions of the tournament had been held going into the 2004 tournament. It is part of snooker's Triple Crown events alongside the World Snooker Championship and the UK Championship, but does not have official ranking status. The tournament was sponsored by Benson & Hedges until 2003 when the company was required to end its association with the Masters due to restrictions on tobacco advertising in the United Kingdom. Thus, the tournament went without sponsorship in 2004.
The 2004 tournament was the eighth of fifteen World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) events in the 2003/2004 season, following the Welsh Open and preceding the third Challenge Tour event. Held in January, the Welsh Open was won by Ronnie O'Sullivan, who defeated Steve Davis by nine to eight (9–8) in the final. The defending Masters champion was Mark Williams, who defeated Stephen Hendry 10–4 in the previous year's final. The tournament had a prize fund of £400,000, and was broadcast on television by the BBC. For the 2004 tournament, a new trophy commissioned by the WPBSA and designed by crystal manufacturer Waterford Crystal was awarded to the Masters champion for the first time.
Format and wild-card matches
Mark Williams, the defending Masters champion and 2003 World Snooker 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 Neil Robertson (the winner of the qualifying event in the Welsh town of Prestatyn during December 2003), and Ding Junhui, who was the wild-card selection. All matches were played to the best of 11 frames, up until the final which was played to a maximum of 19 frames.
For the wild-card round, Robertson was drawn against world number 15 Jimmy White, the 1984 Masters champion. White won the match 6–2 by compiling six half-centuries and a match-best break of 83. World number 16 Joe Perry was assigned as Ding's opponent, the youngest player in the history of the Masters at age 16. Ding compiled breaks of 58 and 108, and Perry took frame four before the mid-session interval. A further break of 118 in the sixth frame, along with Perry potting the cue ball, enabled Ding to claim the final two frames and win the match 6–3.