1996 Masters (snooker)


The 1996 Benson & Hedges Masters was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 4 and 11 February 1996 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England. The last 16 and quarter-final rounds were extended from 9 to 11 frames while the final was extended from 17 to 19 frames.
Stephen Hendry won his sixth Masters title by defeating defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–5 in the final. Hendry won £125,000 and £10,000 for the highest break of the tournament. During his quarter-final match Hendry also set the record of scoring 487 points without reply against Jimmy White.

Field

was the number 1 seed with World Champion Stephen Hendry 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, Matthew Stevens, and Andy Hicks, who was the wild-card selection. Dave Harold, Andy Hicks and Matthew Stevens were making their debuts in the Masters.

Wild-card round

In the preliminary round, the qualifier and wild-card players played the 15th and 16th seeds:
MatchDateScore
WC1Sunday 4 February Terry Griffiths 3–5 Matthew Stevens
WC2Monday 5 February David Roe 2–5 Andy Hicks

Main draw

Final

Qualifying

won the qualifying tournament, known as the 1995 Benson & Hedges Championship at the time.

Century breaks

Total: 21
Andy Hicks's 125, 103 and 102 were scored in the wild-card round.