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2001/02 – Review of the Season
The Towers Snooker Centre in Mansfield
was the new venue for the Benson & Hedges Championship.
Holde
The European Open was back on the
circuit after a gap of four seasons although in the interim, ranking
events had been held in Germany, Ireland and Malta. In deed it was
the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valetta, which was the venue
for the final stages of this event this season. Many top 32 stars
failed to make it to Malta including Steve Davis. Even though Tony Drago’s qualifier had been held over to ensure local interest, he
failed to overcome Robert Milkins. In need of a good run, James
Wattana celebrated his first appearance in the last 32 since last
season’s Embassy by putting out Dave Harold.
Mark King, Peter Ebdon
and Joe Swail also failed at the first hurdle.
Jimmy White, however,
managed to get his first win for some ten months and then went on to
beat John Higgins 5-1 in the next round. The only other s Meanwhile the IBSF announced the cancellation of the world amateur championship due to the war in Afghanistan and the World (Nations) Cup, due to be held in January, was also cancelled but the reason was not entirely clear. The UK Championship found a new home at
York’s Barbican Centre. Five of the top 16 failed to win their opening
matches but all the top eight reached the quarter-finals for the first
time in anyone’s memory. The main talking point of the last 16 round
was the withdrawal of Dave Finbow when 8-0 down to Ronnie O’Sullivan
due to an anxiety attack announcing that he would quit at the end of
the season. In the quarter-finals, Ronnie O’Sulliv Just before and after Christmas, qualifying took place for the Regal Welsh and Thailand Masters. Six of the top 32 failed to qualify in the former and seven in the latter. The pre-qualifying for the world championship also took place in early January to find eight players to join those from the main tour in the next stage. Of the eight who made it, only two, Martin Gould and Stephen Croft, have not played on the main tour at some stage. All sorts of things had been happening at snooker headquarters with Jason Ferguson taking over as chairman and Jim McKenzie being sacked. Rex Williams and Ray Reardon were banned for life and then the future of the WSA itself seemed in doubt. Letters went out to the players but nothing official was announced as to what the future held. Meanwhile, back at the table, the Regal Welsh Open took place in Cardiff. Alan McManus, Stephen Lee and Dave Harold made first round exits while Ronnie O’Sullivan, Matthew Stevens and Mark Williams failed to reach the last eight. Ronnie fell to Paul Hunter who seems to always bring some of his best form to this event. Stephen Hendry put paid to the hopes of John Higgins in the quarters and was joined in the semi-finals by the holder, Ken Doherty, back in then UK after his wedding down under, Graeme Dott and Hunter. It was Doherty and Hunter who went forward to stage a repeat of last year’s final. This time, however it was Paul who came out on top to take victory 9-7 and with it a cheque for £82,500 plus another £7,500 for the top break. Paul’s effort of 141 in the final was his best ever in tournament play.
The tour then moved out to the Far East for back-to-back events in Shanghai and Bangkok. In the China Open there were welcome wins in the first round for Anthony Hamilton and Darren Morgan, both of whom had suffered long lean spells. In the last 16, Ronnie O’Sullivan got his revenge on Jimmy White for that defeat at Wembley whilst teenager, Mark Selby, knocked out Stephen Hendry 5-1. Hamilton & Morgan made further progress but Mark Williams ended the hopes of Steve Davis. Shocks continued as Selby then beat O’Sullivan to move into the semi-finals along with Hamilton, who put out the holder, Ken Doherty, John Higgins and Williams. Hamilton ended Selby’s dream and faced Williams in the final. Mark had lost his last five finals and when he went 5-8 down it looked as if he would lose this one as well but to his great credit he fought back to beat a very disappointed Hamilton 9-8.
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Qualifying for the European and China
Opens took place at Burton-on-Trent. These provided welcome
first wins of the season for 
r, Shaun Murphy, went all the way to the semi-finals only
to lose to Hugh Abernethy and so still no player has won this
event twice. None of the top 32 reached beyond the
quarter-finals and it was the young Welshman, Ryan Day who met
Abernethy in the final and won 9-5 to book his place at Wembley.
urprise of
the last 16 round was Joe Perry’s victory over
an came from 6-1 and
8-4 down to beat Peter Ebdon 9-8 whilst Mark Williams also won the
final five frames to beat Stephen Hendry by the same score.
The highlight of the B&H Masters
at Wembley was the quarter-final meeting between Jimmy White
and Ronnie O’Sullivan which drew the biggest crowd seen there
for years. White came from 5-2 behind to win the decider.
Meanwhile Alan McManus had put out John Higgins and then beat
O’Brien to mover into the semis along with holder, Paul
Hunter, and Mark Williams who had edged past Stephen Hendry.
Mark’s semi finals against White followed the pattern of the
latter’s match with O’Sullivan but although Jimmy again fought
back from 2-5 down it was Mark who took the decider. Waiting
in the final was Paul Hunter who had beaten McManus also in
the final frame. In the final, Hunter came from 0-5 down to
level the match at 5-5 although, but for an awful ‘kick’ on
the final black in the 10th, it would have been 6-4
to Williams. The next eight frames were shared and Hunter won
the decider to become only the third player to successfully
defend his title in this event. 
It was then off to Bangkok for the
Thailand Masters with no time to draw breath. Unusually
these days, all the top sixteen survived the first round with
the exception of Graeme Dott who fell to Quinten Hann, and
only one of the top eight failed to reach the quarter finals.
That was Peter Ebdon who lost 5-1 to Fergal O’Brien. In the
quarters, Matthew Stevens put out John Higgins to reach his
first semi for ages and Stephen Lee ended the hopes of
defending champion, Ken Doherty. Mark Williams’ good form
continued as he easily beat O’Brien and Ronnie O’Sullivan
eased past Stephen Hendry. Williams who had only dropped
three frames in his first three matches, only dropped two more
in beating O’Sullivan to reach the final again where he was
joined by Stephen Lee, a 5-2 victor over Matthew Stevens. In
the final Lee has trouble with his tip and was unable to stop
Mark winning his second title in seven days and jumping to the
top of the season’s money list as well as closing the gap
behind O’Sullivan at the top of the rankings.