| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 10–17 January 2016 (2016-01-10 –2016-01-17) |
| Venue | Alexandra Palace |
| City | London |
| Country | England |
| Organisation | World Snooker |
| Format | Non-ranking event |
| Total prize fund | £600,000 |
| Winner's share | £200,000 |
| Highest break |  Judd Trump (ENG) (140) |
| Final | |
| Champion | Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) |
| Runner-up | Barry Hawkins (ENG) |
| Score | 10–1 |
←2015 2017 → | |
The2016 Masters (officially the2016 Dafabet Masters) was a professional non-rankingsnooker tournament that took place between 10 and 17 January 2016 at theAlexandra Palace in London, England.[1] It was the 42nd staging of theMasters tournament and the fifth successive time it was held at the Alexandra Palace.
The defending championShaun Murphy lost 4–6 againstMark Allen in the first round. Murphy forfeited the sixth frame of the match by missing a red on three consecutive occasions.
The quarter-final betweenJudd Trump andNeil Robertson produced six century breaks, setting a new record for the most centuries in an 11-frame match. These included the two highest breaks of the tournament, 140 from Trump and 139 from Robertson. The match was singled out for particular praise, withJohn Virgo calling it one of the greatest in Masters history.
Playing in his first major televised tournament since taking an eight-month hiatus from professional snooker,Ronnie O'Sullivan reached a record-extending 11th Masters final and won the tournament for a sixth time, equallingStephen Hendry's record for the most Masters titles. Losing only the first frame, he defeatedBarry Hawkins 10–1, the biggest winning margin sinceSteve Davis whitewashedMike Hallett 9–0 in1988, and the first time a player had won ten consecutive frames in a Masters final.
TheMasters is an invitationalsnooker tournament first held in1975.[2] Organised byWorld Snooker, the 2016 Masters was the 42nd staging of the tournament. It was the secondTriple Crown event of the2015–16 snooker season, following the2015 UK Championship and preceding the2016 World Snooker Championship. Held between 10 and 17 January 2016, the event was played at theAlexandra Palace in London. Matches were played as thebest-of-11frames until the final, which was the best-of-19 frames played over twosessions.[3] The event was sponsored for the third time by online betting siteDafabet.[3]
The event featured the 16 players who were placed highest in theworld rankings after the UK Championship in December 2021. The defending champion wasShaun Murphy, who won the 2015 Masters with a 10–2 victory overNeil Robertson in the final.[4] Murphy wasseeded first for the event as defending champion.Stuart Bingham, as world champion, was seeded second. 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 the.Liang Wenbo, who entered the top 16 for the first time after reaching the final of the UK Champion, made his Masters debut,[5] the only player to do so at the 2015 event.
The total prize money of the event was unchanged at £600,000. The breakdown of prize money is shown below:
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The first round was played between 10 and 13 January 2014 as the best-of-11 frames.[6] In the opening match, the defending champion,Shaun Murphy, facedMark Allen, semifinalist in2011. The first two frames were shared, withbreaks of 50 for Allen and 68 for Murphy, and Allen then compiled acentury break of 137.[4] Murphy tied the match once again with a 65 break, but Allen made anotherhalf-century, this time of 91, to move one ahead.[6] Murphy forfeited the sixth frame under the three-miss rule,[7] but he said he did not have other options rather than to risk it: "I had to man up, take a deep breath and play the right shot. Unfortunately I got it completely wrong".[4] Allen then compiled a century of 104 in the next one to put himself one away from victory.[6] Although Murphy won two frames on the trot thanks to a break of 67 and a century of 100, Allen clinched victory in the tenth frame, the only one other than the one ended after the three misses that did not feature a half-century.[6] The2011 champion,Ding Junhui, andStuart Bingham, who had won the2015 World Snooker Championship at the end of the previous season, also shared the first two frames of their first-round encounter.[6] In the third frame, Bingham was on amaximum break attempt, but, having potted fifteenred balls and fifteenblacks, he missed theyellow while beginning toclear up thecolours, and the break ended at 120.[8] Bingham then sealed the first victory of his career in the Masters with a 6–4 result after close to four hours of play.[8]
The following day,Stephen Maguire, four-time semi-finalist, facedJudd Trump, who had lost his first-round match in the Masters for two consecutive years.[9] Maguire took the second frame to level the match at 1–1, but then went on to lose four on the trot.[6][9] He then compiled breaks of 92, 74 and 56, and restored balance at 4–4.[6][9] However, Trump won the ninth and tenth breaks to seal victory.[6][9] "My lack of form has put pressure on because I was used to going out there and expecting to play well", said Trump, who wanted to "give snooker four or five years of complete dedication and see what happens".[9] In the evening,Barry Hawkins andJoe Perry shared the first six frames, but Hawkins, aided by half-centuries of 81 and 58, won three on the trot to advance into the quarter-finals.[6]
The quarter-final betweenJudd Trump andNeil Robertson produced six century breaks, setting a new record for the most centuries in an 11-frame match.[10] These included the two highest breaks of the tournament, 140 from Trump and 139 from Robertson. The match was singled out for particular praise, withJohn Virgo calling it one of the greatest in Masters history.[11]
Playing in his first major televised tournament since taking an eight-month hiatus from professional snooker,Ronnie O'Sullivan reached a record-extending 11th Masters final and won the tournament for a sixth time, equallingStephen Hendry's record for the most Masters titles.[12] Losing only the first frame, he defeatedBarry Hawkins 10–1, the biggest winning margin sinceSteve Davis whitewashedMike Hallett 9–0 in1988,[13] and the first time a player had won ten consecutive frames in a Masters final.[14]
| Last 16 Best of 11 frames | Quarter-finals Best of 11 frames | Semi-finals Best of 11 frames | Final Best of 19 frames | ||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Shaun Murphy (ENG) | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 11 |  Mark Allen (NIR) | 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 11 | Mark Allen | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Barry Hawkins | 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Barry Hawkins (ENG) | 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 10 | Joe Perry (ENG) | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Barry Hawkins | 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Judd Trump | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Judd Trump (ENG) | 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 16 |  Stephen Maguire (SCO) | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Judd Trump | 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 4 |  Neil Robertson | 5 | |||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Neil Robertson (AUS) | 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 14 |  Marco Fu (HKG) | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Barry Hawkins | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Ronnie O'Sullivan | 10 | |||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Mark Selby (ENG) | 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 12 | Ricky Walden (ENG) | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Mark Selby | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Ronnie O'Sullivan | 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) | 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 13 |  Mark Williams (WAL) | 5 | |||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Ronnie O'Sullivan | 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Stuart Bingham | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| 7 | John Higgins (SCO) | 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 15 |  Liang Wenbo (CHN) | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 7 | John Higgins | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Stuart Bingham | 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Stuart Bingham (ENG) | 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 9 | Ding Junhui (CHN) | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee:Olivier Marteel. Alexandra Palace, London, England, 17 January 2016. | ||
| Barry Hawkins (8) England | 1–10 | Ronnie O'Sullivan (6) England |
| Afternoon:66–50, 8–97 (70),0–136 (136),49–73 (52),28–72,36–64,17–77 (77),13–72 (72) Evening: 39–58, 0–92 (66),0–82 (82) | ||
| 48 | Highest break | 136 |
| 0 | Century breaks | 1 |
| 0 | 50+ breaks | 7 |
Total: 26[15]
| Tournaments | |
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