1999 Masters (snooker)

The 1999 Masters (officially the 1999 Benson & Hedges Masters) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 7 and 14 February 1999 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England. The wild-card matches were extended from 9 to 11 frames.

John Higgins defeated Ken Doherty 10–8 in the final to win his first Masters title. He had also won the World title (where he also defeated Doherty) and UK title in 1998, meaning that at the time he held all three Triple Crown titles simultaneously. Before his semi-final match Higgins had said, referring to the possibility of holding all three titles, "That triple crown would be a dream but it's going to be tough." After his win, the term "Triple Crown" was used in a number of newspapers to describe Higgins' feat.

Field

Defending champion Mark Williams 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, David Gray (ranked 61), and Jimmy White (ranked 18), who was the wild-card selection. David Gray and Mark King were making their debuts in the Masters.

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below: Winner: £155,000 Runner-up: £80,000 Semi-finalist: £40,000 Quarter finalist: £26,000 Last 16: £15,000 Wild-card round: £9,000

High break Prize: £18,000 Maximum break: B&H Gold Award and a Honda car

Total: £575,000

Wild-card round

In the preliminary round, the wild-card players plays the 15th and 16th seeds:

Match	Date		Score
WC1	Sunday 7 February	James Wattana (THA) (15)	6–2	David Gray (ENG)
WC2	Sunday 7 February	Mark King (ENG) (16)	6–5	Jimmy White (ENG)

Main draw

Last 16 Best of 11 frames			Quarter-finals Best of 11 frames		Semi-finals Best of 11 frames	Final Best of 19 frames

1	Mark Williams (WAL)	6

13	Nigel Bond (ENG)	0
	1	Wales Mark Williams	4

		8	Scotland Alan McManus	6
8	Alan McManus (SCO)	6

9	Stephen Lee (ENG)	2
	8	Scotland Alan McManus	3

		5	Republic of Ireland Ken Doherty	6
5	Ken Doherty (IRL)	6

14	Steve Davis (ENG)	4
	5	Republic of Ireland Ken Doherty	6

		4	England Ronnie O'Sullivan	2
4	Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG)	6

15	James Wattana (THA)	5
	5	Republic of Ireland Ken Doherty	8

		2	Scotland John Higgins	10
3	Stephen Hendry (SCO)	4

10	Tony Drago (MLT)	6
	10	Malta Tony Drago	5

		11	England Anthony Hamilton	6
6	John Parrott (ENG)	4

11	Anthony Hamilton (ENG)	6
	11	England Anthony Hamilton	3

		2	Scotland John Higgins	6
7	Peter Ebdon (ENG)	5

16	Mark King (ENG)	6
	16	England Mark King	1

		2	Scotland John Higgins	6
2	John Higgins (SCO)	6

12	Alain Robidoux (CAN)	1

Final

Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee: Jan Verhass Wembley Conference Centre, London, England, 14 February 1999.
Ken Doherty (5) Ireland	8–10	John Higgins (2) Scotland
Afternoon: 31–83, 69–52, 60–66 (66), 34–61, 72–1, 27–80 (76), 76–31, 56–21 Evening: 0–78 (78), 20–88, 97–29 (90), 109–0 (109), 73–10 (59), 95–7 (95) 0–88 (64), 43–81, 15–69, 35–72
109	Highest break	78
1	Century breaks	0
4	50+ breaks	4

Qualifying

David Gray won the qualifying tournament, known as the 1998 Benson & Hedges Championship at the time.

Century breaks

Total: 12

123 – Mark Williams
121, 116, 113, 107, 105 – Tony Drago
115 – James Wattana
112, 104 – John Higgins
109, 104 – Ken Doherty
104 – Alan McManus

James Wattana's century was scored in the wild-card round.