European Masters snooker: A tournament spanning 34 years, nine countries, 17 champions, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Jimmy White

ByEurosport

Updated 16/08/2023 at 06:19 GMT

The European Masters – live on Eurosport and discovery+ between 22-27 August – has evolved into one of the most coveted tournaments on the calendar. We look back on the rich history of a ranking event that has spanned 34 years, nine countries and produced wins for some of the greatest players in the history of the sport, including Ronnie O'Sullivan, Stephen Hendry, Steve Davis and Jimmy White.

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The eighth edition of the European Masters is due to begin in the German city of Nuremberg later this month, but the tournament has a storied potting past beyond its recent re-launch in 2016.

It is a richly nomadic event that has been known by four different titles over the past five decades, has been staged in England, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Malta, Ireland, Romania, Austria and Germany, with 17 winners, including snooker icons Ronnie O'Sullivan, Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry and Jimmy White.

First known as the European Open in 1989, the tournament was carried off three times by 1991 world champion John Parrott in its formative years.

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Parrott claimed the first two tournaments in France with wins over Terry Griffiths (9-8) and Hendry (10-6) after the European Open became the first ranking event to be held outside the UK alongside the Canadian Masters in the 1988/89 season.

Parrott also lost finals to Stephen Hendry in 1994 (9-3) and John Higgins (9-5) in 1997 in between his third win in 1996, courtesy of a 9-7 victory over Peter Ebdon in the Maltese capital Valletta.

It was to be the ninth and final ranking triumph of the Liverpudlian's celebrated 27-year career.

Interestingly enough, the tournament was also the scene of record four-time winner Hendry's 36th and final victory in a ranking tournament in 2005 when he completed a 9-7 success against Graeme Dott after the tournament was re-branded the Malta Cup for the first time.

In keeping with such a theme, 1997 world champion Ken Doherty has not lifted a ranking trophy since a 9-8 win over John Higgins in the 2006 Malta Cup final delivered the sixth title of his career.

Doherty also reached the final two years later, but lost 9-3 to Shaun Murphy when the final staging of the old Malta Cup was given non-ranking status.

It is the only time the European Masters has not been a ranking event.

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The re-launch of the tournament as the European Masters in 2016 has produced three final-frame deciders in the past seven years.

Judd Trump edged Ronnie O'Sullivan 9-8 in 2016, Mark Selby completed a narrow 9-8 win over Martin Gould in 2020 – staged behind closed doors in Milton Keynes due to the pandemic – and Fan Zhengyi upset the odds with a last-gasp 10-9 win over O'Sullivan in 2022.

Fan's victory over O'Sullivan was the biggest surprise of the tournament's 34-year history as the world No. 80 – a 750-1 outsider at the outset of the week – revelled in his first ranking triumph at the age of 21.

It was achieved only three months before his opponent, appearing in a 60th ranking final, matched Hendry's record Crucible haul with a seventh world title in Sheffield.

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Astonishingly enough, O'Sullivan first reached the European Open final in 1993, losing 10-4 to Hendry, before claiming the trophy a decade later with a 10-6 win over Hendry in Torquay.

The event has been held twice in the same year in 1993, 2020 and 2022, but staged over different seasons in the snooker calendar.

Other notable winners include Jimmy White (1992), Steve Davis (1993) and Mark Williams (1998) when the event was known as the Irish Open for a solitary year.

Alain Robidoux (1989), Shaun Murphy (2016), Zhang Anda (2022) and Hossein Vafaei (2022) hold the honour of being the only players to compile a 147 break in the history of the event.

Watch - Vafaei hits 147 during European Masters qualifying

2010 world champion Neil Robertson completed only the second whitewash in a major snooker final with a 9-0 drubbing of Zhou Yuelong in Austria in 2020.

Davis had recorded the first with a 10-0 demolition of Dean Reynolds in the 1989 Grand Prix final.

The KIA Metropol Arena in Nuremberg will host the European Masters (live on Eurosport and discovery+ between 22-27 August) for the first time as Kyren Wilson defends the title he claimed with a 9-3 win over Barry Hawkins last year.