German Masters

This article is about the snooker tournament. For the golf tournament, see German Masters (golf). For the curling event, see German Masters (curling).

German MastersTournament information

Venue| Tempodrom
Location| Berlin
Country| Germany
Established| 1995
Organisation(s)| WPBSA
World Snooker Tour
Format| Ranking event
Total prize fund| £400,000[1]
Current champion|  Ali Carter (ENG)

The German Masters is a professional ranking snooker tournament held at the Tempodrom in Berlin, Germany since 2011. The 2021 event was held at Milton Keynes in England because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ali Carter is the reigning champion, having won the event in 2023. An earlier ranking event, the German Open, was held in Germany from 1995 to 1997. This was followed by an invitation event, called the German Masters, in 1998.

## History[edit]

Tempodrom (Berlin)

The tournament started as the German Open and was a ranking tournament from 1995 to 1997. The first event was played in Frankfurt in December 1995, replacing the European Open in the December place in the calendar, the European Open being moved to early 1996.[2] The tournament involved the top 16 players in the world ranking who were joined by 16 qualifiers and 4 wild-card players. The four lowest ranked qualifiers played the wild-card players, winning all their four matches and advancing to the last-32.[3] John Higgins met Ken Doherty in the final. The match was level at three frame each before Higgins won the next six frames to win 9–3 and take the first prize of £40,000. Higgins made a break of 139 in the final to also win the high break prize of £5,000.[3]

The 1996 event was again held in December, at the British military base at Osnabrück.[4] Only 16 players competed in Germany. The final qualifying round in which the top-16 seeds played 16 players from earlier qualifying rounds was played in Preston, Lancashire in November.[5] Ronnie O'Sullivan met Alain Robidoux in the final, winning 9–7. O'Sullivan led 7–3 before Robidoux won the next four frames to level the match at 7–7. O'Sullivan then won the next two frames to win the match, finishing with a break of 108. Robidoux took the high break prize for a break of 145 in the final.[5]

The 1997 event was held in Bingen am Rhein using the same format as in 1996. The final qualifying round was held in Hereford in September.[6] John Higgins met Ken Doherty in the final, Higgins led 5–3 lead after the first session and then won the first three frames in the evening session to lead 8–3. Parrott won frame 12 but Higgins finished the match with a break of 105 in the next frame, winning the first prize of £50,000.[6] In 1998 the event was again held at Bingen am Rhein but became an invitation event with 12 players competing. The name of the tournament was changed to German Masters. The winner received £25,000 with all 12 players guaranteed a minimum of £5,000.[7] John Parrott beat Mark Williams 6–4 in the final. Williams led 4–3 but Parrott won the next three to win the match.[7] The event then was discontinued, but returned for the 2010/2011 season as a ranking tournament.

The revived tournament has been held at the Tempodrom in Berlin since the 2011 edition. It has traditionally been run as a five-day event (from Wednesday to Sunday) with the format being a flat-128 player draw and the first two rounds played as qualifiers away from the venue sometime before the main event. The format received occasional criticism over the years, but the 2023 German Masters received notable criticism as a result of many Top 16 players failing to reach the main stages of the tournament and Ronnie O'Sullivan withdrawing before his first round qualifying match. (initially there was just six players who qualified, but this dropped to four as two were suspended). In the main event itself, two of those players failed to progress beyond the Last 16.

Following those criticisms and with support of the promoter SnookerStars.de, the World Snooker Tour confirmed that the televised stages of the tournament were to be increased from its normal five days to the traditional seven days.[8][9]

## Winners[edit]

Year  | Winner  | Runner-up  | Final score  | Host city  | Season  | Refs

|
|
|
|
|
|

German Open (ranking)[10]
1995 |  John Higgins (SCO) |  Ken Doherty (IRL) | 9–3  | Frankfurt | 1995/96 | [3]
1996 |  Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) |  Alain Robidoux (CAN) | 9–7  | Osnabrück | 1996/97 | [5]
1997 |  John Higgins (SCO) |  John Parrott (ENG) | 9–4  | Bingen am Rhein | 1997/98 | [6]
German Masters (non-ranking)[10]
1998 |  John Parrott (ENG) |  Mark Williams (WAL) | 6–4  | Bingen am Rhein | 1998/99 | [7]
German Masters (ranking)[11]
2011 |  Mark Williams (WAL) |  Mark Selby (ENG) | 9–7  | Berlin | 2010/11 | [12]
2012 |  Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) |  Stephen Maguire (SCO) | 9–7  | 2011/12 | [13]
2013 |  Ali Carter (ENG) |  Marco Fu (HKG) | 9–6  | 2012/13 | [14]
2014 |  Ding Junhui (CHN) |  Judd Trump (ENG) | 9–5  | 2013/14 | [15]
2015 |  Mark Selby (ENG) |  Shaun Murphy (ENG) | 9–7  | 2014/15 | [16]
2016 |  Martin Gould (ENG) |  Luca Brecel (BEL) | 9–5  | 2015/16 | [17]
2017 |  Anthony Hamilton (ENG) |  Ali Carter (ENG) | 9–6  | 2016/17 | [18]
2018 |  Mark Williams (WAL) |  Graeme Dott (SCO) | 9–1  | 2017/18 | [19]
2019 |  Kyren Wilson (ENG) |  David Gilbert (ENG) | 9–7  | 2018/19 | [20]
2020 |  Judd Trump (ENG) |  Neil Robertson (AUS) | 9–6  | 2019/20 | [21]
2021 |  Judd Trump (ENG) |  Jack Lisowski (ENG) | 9–2  | Milton Keynes | 2020/21 | [22]
2022 |  Zhao Xintong (CHN) |  Yan Bingtao (CHN) | 9–0  | Berlin | 2021/22 | [23]
2023 |  Ali Carter (ENG) |  Tom Ford (ENG) | 10–3  | 2022/23 |

## See also[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to German Masters.

* Paul Hunter Classic
* Sport in Berlin

## References[edit]

1. ^ "BetVictor German Masters – World Snooker". Archived from the original on 8 August 2020. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
2. ^ Turner, Chris. "Major European Tournaments". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 February 2012. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
3. ^ a b c "German Open 1995". Snooker.org. 20 April 2012.
4. ^ "Snooker". The Guardian. 10 December 1996. p. 22 - via Newspapers.com.
5. ^ a b c "German Open 1996". Snooker.org. 21 April 2012.
6. ^ a b c "German Open 1997". Snooker.org. 20 April 2012.
7. ^ a b c "German Masters 1998". Snooker.org. 14 January 2011.
8. ^ "Snookerstars on Instagram: "German Masters 2024 wird ein 7 Tage Event! Wir verlängern unser Weltranglisten Turnier! Das heißt mehr Spieler und somit mehr Stars in Berlin! Tickets ab 10.02.22 unter www.snookerstars.de! Wir freuen uns auf euch! #snooker #snookerplayer #berlin #snookerlove #tempodrom #2024 #tickets"".
9. ^ "2024 German Masters Extended to Seven Days". 5 February 2023.
10. ^ a b "German Masters Finals". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
11. ^ "Hall of Fame". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
12. ^ "German Masters (2011)". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 30 April 2011. Retrieved 7 February 2011.
13. ^ "PartyPoker.net German Masters (2012)". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 21 December 2018. Retrieved 14 October 2011.
14. ^ "Betfair German Masters (2013)". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 1 May 2013. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
15. ^ "German Masters (2014)". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
16. ^ "Kreativ Dental German Masters (2015)". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 28 October 2019. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
17. ^ "918.com German Masters (2016)". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
18. ^ "F66.com German Masters (2017)". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 4 April 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2017.
19. ^ "D88 German Masters (2018)". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 18 May 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
20. ^ "Kyren Wilson beats David Gilbert to win dramatic German Masters final". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 4 February 2019. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
21. ^ "BetVictor German Masters (2020)". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
22. ^ "BildBet German Masters (2021)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
23. ^ "BetVictor German Masters (2022)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 30 November 2021.

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*[ENG]: England
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