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2001/02 –
Review of the Season
For this season the Main Tour was reduced to 128
players. The top 80 from last season were joined by the next 16
on the one-year list and qualifiers from overseas. LG,
the electronics company, were a welcome new sponsor with the LG
Cup set to replace the Grand Prix and this event returns to the
Preston Guild Hall. Disappointingly, no other new sponsors were
in place at the start of the season. A total of nine ranking events
would form the Main Tour and we were to return to the format where
all events except the UK and World championships would carry the
same points value. The tournament structure was also altered so
that after a first round involving those ranked from 65 to 128,
the winners would play off down to 16 who would meet the next 16
in the rankings and so on.
The provisional one-year ranking list showed Quentin
Hann and Drew Henry in the top 16 at the expense of
Fergal
O’Brien and
Dave
Harold.
The first batch of qualifiers began before the end
of July at Newport. These were for the British Open, LG Cup and
UK Championship. Former top 16 stars
Neal
Foulds, David Roe and
Gary
Wilkinson qualified from the first, indeed Wilkinson came through
in all three. It was good to see Alain Robidoux making it in the
UK. Sadly for his many fans, Darren Morgan failed to win any of
his matches and none of the newcomers made any significant impact.
John Higgins - sensational start to the season
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The season’s first major event, The Champion’s
Cup, opened in Brighton with the usual two round robin groups.
In the first it was the match between
Ken
Doherty and Ronnie O’Sullivan that was to prove the
most significant. Both had one their first matches and the
winner was sure of a semi-final spot. Having seemingly clinched
the game when 4-3 and 33-0 ahead Ronnie played a loose safety
and went on to lose
A heavy defeat at the hands of
Peter
Ebdon meant that Ronnie was out and Peter would go through.
In the other group it was Higgins and Williams who qualified
leaving Hendry and Paul Hunter to lick their wounds. 5-2 victories
for each meant that John Higgins and Mark Williams met in
the final which John won 7-4 to collect £100,000. Worryingly
for Mark this result meant that he had lost eight of his last
13 finals.
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At Stirling, meanwhile, England’s Ricky Walden clinched the IBSF World Under 21 title with an 11-5 victory over Sean O’Neill
from Northern Ireland. Ricky had to beat Sean twice as they had
met earlier in the group stage.
| The Regal Masters moved to a new
venue in Glasgow and Patrick Wallace won the qualifying competition
to join the world’s top eight and three other wild cards
in the tournament proper. The only surprise in the first round
was Marco Fu, who had a terrible season in 2000/01, beating
one of the stars of that campaign, Peter Ebdon. His form continued
with a victory over Ken Doherty in the quarter-finals. Ronnie
O’Sullivan finally stopped him in the semis and John Higgins
who beat Mark Williams comfortably joined the world champion
in the final. Higgins took his second title on the trot with
a 9-6 victory and collected the top break prize as well. |
Patrick Wallace
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