2018 Masters (snooker)

Dafabet Masters

Tournament information
Dates	14 – 21 January 2018
Venue	Alexandra Palace
City	London
Country	England
Organisation	WPBSA
Format	Non-ranking event
Total prize fund	£600,000
Winner's share	£200,000
Highest break	Liang Wenbo (139)
Final
Champion	Mark Allen
Runner-up	Kyren Wilson
Score	10–7
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The 2018 Dafabet Masters was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament, that took place between 14 and 21 January 2018 in London, England. It was the 44th staging of the tournament. The tournament was broadcast in Europe by the BBC and Eurosport.

Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion, but he lost 1–6 in the quarter-finals to the eventual champion, Mark Allen. It was O'Sullivan's first defeat at The Masters since 2015.

Mark Allen won his first Triple Crown trophy, beating Kyren Wilson 10–7 in the final.

Summary

Seeding and notes before the tournament

Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan was the number 1 seed. The remaining places were allocated to players based on the world rankings after the 2017 UK Championship. Stuart Bingham, ranked 12, was suspended for betting breaches, so that the player ranked 17 qualified. Luca Brecel and Anthony McGill made their debuts at the Masters. 2012 Masters Champion Neil Robertson was a notable absence. It was the first Masters without Robertson since 2006.

As in previous years, the top eight seeds were allocated fixed positions in the draw. The rest of the draw was made by drawing lots during the final of the 2017 UK Championship.

First round

• Mark Williams won a match at the Masters for the first time in five years, coming from 3–5 behind to beat World Champion and World number 1 Mark Selby 6–5.
• Playing in his first Masters tournament in eight years, the other Welshman in the draw, Ryan Day, came from 0–3 down to beat World number 4 and former Masters Champion, Ding Junhui, 6–4.
• Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan whitewashed world number 9 Marco Fu 6–0, making three centuries during the match. During the first four frames in total, O'Sullivan scored 477 points without reply and Fu had gained only 5 points due to a foul.
• Kyren Wilson had his first victory in a Masters match after losing in the first round of his debut the year before. He beat former Masters finalist, Barry Hawkins, 6–4 in the first round of this edition of the tournament. Then he beat Mark Williams 6–1. In semi-final, he beat Judd Trump 6–5, by trailing 1–3 and 2–5. But he lost to Mark Allen by 7–10 in the final.

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money is shown below:

• Winner: £200,000
• Runner-up: £90,000
• Semi-finals: £50,000
• Quarter-finals: £25,000
• Last 16: £12,500
• Highest break: £10,000
• Total: £600,000

Final

Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee: Olivier Marteel. Alexandra Palace, London, England, 21 January 2018.
Mark Allen (8) Northern Ireland	10–7	Kyren Wilson (13) England
Afternoon: 39–80 (65), 82–22 (62), 50–63 (52), 58–49, 58–7, 6–86 (86), 1–105 (89), 75–52 (Wilson 52) Evening: 65–43, 23–92 (84), 79–0 (73), 119–0 (119), 84–1 (50), 0–98 (73), 49–73, 69–2 (69), 72–0 (71)
119	Highest break	89
1	Century breaks	0
6	50+ breaks	7

Century breaks

Total: 28

• 139, 116 Liang Wenbo
• 135, 120, 119, 115 Mark Allen
• 135 Mark Williams
• 131, 127, 113 John Higgins
• 131, 120 Barry Hawkins
• 125, 115, 105 Ryan Day
• 122 Anthony McGill
• 121, 120, 112 Ronnie O'Sullivan
• 119 Shaun Murphy
• 113, 111 Judd Trump
• 111, 100 Ding Junhui
• 110 Ali Carter
• 109, 107, 106 Kyren Wilson