2010 Masters (snooker)

The 2010 Masters (officially the 2010 PokerStars.com Masters) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 10 and 17 January 2010 at the Wembley Arena in London, England. This was the first time that the Masters was sponsored by PokerStars.com.^[1]

2010 PokerStars.com Masters

Tournament information
Dates	10–17 January 2010 (2010-01-10 – 2010-01-17)
Venue	Wembley Arena
City	London
Country	England
Organisation	WPBSA
Format	Non-ranking event
Total prize fund	£486,000
Winner's share	£150,000
Highest break	Stephen Maguire (SCO) (140)  Neil Robertson (AUS) (140)
Final
Champion	Mark Selby (ENG)
Runner-up	Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG)
Score	10–9
← 2009 2011 →

The final was a repeat of the previous years' final, with Mark Selby playing against the defending championship Ronnie O'Sullivan. Unlike the previous year, Selby won his 2nd Masters title by defeating O'Sullivan 10–9 in the final after trailing 4–1, 5–3 and 9–6.^[2][3]

Field

Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 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, Rory McLeod (ranked 39), and wild-card selection Jimmy White (ranked 56).^[4] Rory McLeod was making his debut in the Masters following his win in the qualifying tournament;^[5] this to date is the last Masters to feature such qualifying tournament and the wildcard round in general.

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:^[6][7]

Qualifying stage

• Winner: £2,000
• Runner-up: £680
• Semi-final: £250
• Quarter-final: £105

Televised stage

Winner: £150,000 Runner-up: £75,000 Semi-final: £34,000 Quarter-final: £16,000 Last 16: £14,000 Last 18 (wild-cards): £3,500

Highest break: £10,000 Maximum break: £25,000 Total: £486,000

Wild-card round

In the preliminary round the wild-card players played the 15th and 16th seeds:^[8]

Match	Date		Score
WC1	Monday 11 January	Mark Williams (WAL) (15)	6–2	Rory McLeod (ENG)
WC2	Sunday 10 January	Mark King (ENG) (16)	6–2	Jimmy White (ENG)

Main draw

^[9][10][11]

	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
	9	Neil Robertson (AUS)	4
						1	Ronnie O'Sullivan	6
						14	Peter Ebdon	3
	8	Marco Fu (HKG)	2
	14	Peter Ebdon (ENG)	6
											1	Ronnie O'Sullivan	6
											15	Mark Williams	5
	5	Ali Carter (ENG)	3
	15	Mark Williams (WAL)	6
						15	Mark Williams	6
						4	Shaun Murphy	4
	4	Shaun Murphy (ENG)	6
	10	Stephen Hendry (SCO)	4
																1	Ronnie O'Sullivan	9
																7	Mark Selby	10
	3	Stephen Maguire (SCO)	6
	16	Mark King (ENG)	3
						3	Stephen Maguire	6
						6	Ryan Day	1
	6	Ryan Day (WAL)	6
	12	Joe Perry (ENG)	0
											3	Stephen Maguire	3
											7	Mark Selby	6
	7	Mark Selby (ENG)	6
	13	Ding Junhui (CHN)	1
						7	Mark Selby	6
						11	Mark Allen	5
	2	John Higgins (SCO)	3
	11	Mark Allen (NIR)	6

Final

Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee: Jan Verhaas Wembley Arena, London, England, 17 January 2010
Ronnie O'Sullivan (1)  England	9–10	Mark Selby (7)  England
Afternoon: 35–81, 90–34 (56), 86–7 (86), 122–0 (122), 101–4 (101), 0–83 (83), 0–112 (112), 74–33 (54) Evening: 0–117 (54, 58), 114–8 (92), 0–129 (129), 74–41, 0–78 (78), 137–0 (89), 91–3 (91), 25–92 (62), 8–109 (109), 67–78, 0–65
122	Highest break	129
2	Century breaks	3
8	50+ breaks	8

Qualifying

The 2009 Masters Qualifying Event was held between 26 and 29 October 2009 at Pontins in Prestatyn, Wales.^[12][13] Rory McLeod earned a wild-card to the 2010 Masters, beating Andrew Higginson 6–1 in the final.^[14]

Round 1 Best of 7 frames

Round 2 Best of 9 frames

Round 3 Best of 9 frames

Quarter-finals Best of 9 frames

Semi-finals Best of 9 frames

Final Best of 11 frames

Century breaks

Televised stage centuries

A total of 20 century breaks were made during the event.^[9]

• 140, 121 – Stephen Maguire
• 140, 101 – Neil Robertson
• 132, 107, 102 – Mark Williams
• 129, 112, 109 – Mark Selby
• 122, 114, 106, 106, 101 – Ronnie O'Sullivan
• 114, 104 – Stephen Hendry
• 114 – Mark Allen
• 106, 100 – Shaun Murphy

Qualifying stage centuries

A total of 12 centuries were made during qualifying for the event.^[15]

• 137 – Barry Pinches
• 125 – Judd Trump
• 120 – Bjorn Haneveer
• 118 – Matthew Selt
• 116 – Jimmy White
• 111, 109 – Anthony Hamilton
• 107, 100 – Jamie Burnett
• 106 – David Gray
• 105 – Rory McLeod
• 100 – Robert Milkins