1996 Masters (snooker)

The 1996 Masters (officially the 1996 Benson & Hedges Masters) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 4 and 11 February 1996 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England. The last 16 and quarter-final rounds were extended from 9 to 11 frames while the final was extended from 17 to 19 frames, which has remained the match format ever since.

1996 Benson & Hedges Masters

Tournament information
Dates	4–11 February 1996 (1996-02-04 – 1996-02-11)
Venue	Wembley Conference Centre
City	London
Country	England
Organisation	WPBSA
Format	Non-ranking event
Winner's share	£125,000
Highest break	Stephen Hendry (SCO) (144)
Final
Champion	Stephen Hendry (SCO)
Runner-up	Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG)
Score	10–5
← 1995 1997 →

Stephen Hendry won his sixth Masters title by defeating defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–5 in the final. Hendry won £125,000 and £10,000 for the highest break of the tournament (144).^[1] During his quarter-final match Hendry also set the record of scoring 487 points without reply against Jimmy White.^[2]

Field

Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan was the number 1 seed with World Champion Stephen Hendry 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, Matthew Stevens (ranked 236), and Andy Hicks (ranked 17), who was the wild-card selection. Dave Harold, Andy Hicks and Matthew Stevens 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:^[1][3]

Match	Date		Score
WC1	Sunday 4 February	Terry Griffiths (WAL) (15)	3–5	Matthew Stevens (WAL)
WC2	Monday 5 February	David Roe (ENG) (16)	2–5	Andy Hicks (ENG)

Main draw

^[1][3]

	Last 16 Best of 11 frames					Quarter-finals Best of 11 frames					Semi-finals Best of 11 frames					Final Best of 19 frames
	1	Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG)	6
	12	Nigel Bond (ENG)	5
						1	Ronnie O'Sullivan	6
						8	Darren Morgan	4
	8	Darren Morgan (WAL)	6
	10	Peter Ebdon (ENG)	5
											1	Ronnie O'Sullivan	6
												Andy Hicks	1
	5	James Wattana (THA)	4
		Andy Hicks (ENG)	6
							Andy Hicks	6
						4	John Parrott	3
	4	John Parrott (ENG)	6
	14	Tony Drago (MLT)	5
																1	Ronnie O'Sullivan	5
																2	Stephen Hendry	10
	3	Steve Davis (ENG)	6
	9	Ken Doherty (IRL)	0
						3	Steve Davis	4
						6	Alan McManus	6
	6	Alan McManus (SCO)	6
		Matthew Stevens (WAL)	5
											6	Alan McManus	4
											2	Stephen Hendry	6
	7	Jimmy White (ENG)	6
	13	Dave Harold (ENG)	5
						7	Jimmy White	0
						2	Stephen Hendry	6
	2	Stephen Hendry (SCO)	6
	11	John Higgins (SCO)	4

Final

Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee: Wembley Conference Centre, London, England, 11 February 1996.[1]
Stephen Hendry (2)  Scotland	10–5	Ronnie O'Sullivan (1)  England
Afternoon: 108–0 (71), 12–73 (62), 69–90 (Hendry 54), 78–48 (77), 74–49, 61–17 (50), 71–5, 74–1 (62) Evening: 0–109 (109), 122–0 (87), 126–8 (125), 9–62 (61), 80–1 (80), 0–138 (106), 103–0 (97)
125	Highest break	109
1	Century breaks	2
9	50+ breaks	4

Qualifying

Matthew Stevens won the qualifying tournament, known as the 1995 Benson & Hedges Championship at the time.^[4]

Century breaks

Total: 21^[5]

• 144, 134, 127, 125, 121, 105 – Stephen Hendry
• 131, 100 – Alan McManus
• 128, 109, 109, 106 – Ronnie O'Sullivan
• 125, 118, 103, 102 – Andy Hicks
• 117 – John Parrott
• 110 – Nigel Bond
• 104 – Steve Davis
• 101 – John Higgins
• 100 – Dave Harold

Andy Hicks's 125, 103 and 102 were scored in the wild-card round.