Stephen Hendry’s 1989 win prefigured his decade of
dominance similar to the one prefigured by Davis’s win in
1980. In 1993, Ronnie O’Sullivan became the youngest-ever
winner of the tournament (and any ranking tournament) aged
just 17. Eight years later, in 2001, he delivered the final’s best
winning margin since it had become the best of 19 frames in
the 1993 tournament, beating Ken Doherty 10–1. Three years
later, in 2004, Stephen Maguire repeated the feat against David
Gray. Doherty almost won the tournament in the 2002 final
against Mark Williams, but lost 9–10 in a dramatic deciding
frame.
table, leaving Higgins requiring a snooker to remain in the
tournament. Higgins got the snooker and cleared the colours.
Another frame won by Higgins took the match to the decider.
Finally, with only brown, blue, pink and black left at the table,
Higgins potted the brown and then added a difficult long blue
and equally difficult pink, thereby winning the frame and the
tournament by 10–9
In 2011 the event returned to the Barbican Centre in York, and
the matches until the quarter-finals were reduced to best of 11
frames. 2014 saw yet another classic final, as Ronnie O’Sullivan
won his fifth title 10–9 over 2011 winner Judd Trump. Mark
Selby is the defending champion, having beaten Ronnie
O’Sullivan 10–7 in the 2016 final.
The 2005 tournament saw Davis, aged 48, reaching his first
ranking tournament final for almost two years. He lost 6–10 to
the 18-year-old Ding Junhui. The following year, Peter Ebdon
won the title. In 2007, the tournament was won by Ronnie
O’Sullivan for the fourth time, again with some ease, as he beat
Stephen Maguire 10–2 in the final. The tournament was also
notable for the longest televised frame (77 minutes) between
Marco Fu and Mark Selby and Ronnie O’Sullivan’s maximum
147 break in the deciding frame of the semi-final.
The 2009 final saw the reigning world champion John Higgins
lose to Ding Junhui, after he missed the brown and the chance
to go 8–6 in front. The 2010 final turned out to be another
dramatic match, instantly described by many commentators as
an all-time classic. At one point, John Higgins, playing in his
first major tournament after the end of a six-month ban for his
involvement in match-fixing discussions, was 5–9 down to
Mark Williams. However, he managed to win the next two
frames. At 7–9, Williams led by 29 points with only 27 on the
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