The 2022 European Masters (officially the 2022 BetVictor European Masters) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 16 to 21 August 2022 at the Stadthalle Fürth in Fürth, Germany. Broadcast on Eurosport and other networks worldwide, the tournament was the second ranking event of the 2022–23 season and the second of eight tournaments in the season's BetVictor Series.[1] The 24th edition of the European Masters, it was the second staging of the event in 2022 after the previous event in February. It featured a total prize fund of £427,000, of which the winner received £80,000.
The defending champion was Fan Zhengyi, who defeated Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–9 in the final of the tournament's previous edition.[2] However, Fan lost 1–5 to Michael Judge in his held-over qualifying match. O'Sullivan, the reigning world champion and world number one, withdrew from the event for medical reasons. Kyren Wilson defeated Barry Hawkins 9–3 in the final to win the fifth ranking title of his career. The highest break prize was shared by Zhang Anda and Hossein Vafaei, both of whom made maximum breaks in the qualifying round.
The event featured a prize fund of £427,000, with the winner receiving £80,000. The breakdown of prize money for this event is shown below:[10]
Winner: £80,000
Runner-up: £35,000
Semi-final: £17,500
Quarter-final: £11,000
Last 16: £7,500
Last 32: £4,500
Last 64: £3,000
Highest break: £5,000
Total: £427,000
Summary
Qualifying round
Qualifiers for the tournament were held from 15 to 17 July and 22 to 24 July 2022 at the Morningside Arena in Leicester, although qualifying matches featuring the defending champion, Fan Zhengyi, and those involving Mark Selby and Judd Trump, were held over to be played in Fürth. World number one Ronnie O'Sullivan also had his qualifying match held over, but he withdrew for medical reasons a week before the tournament and was replaced in the draw by Luke Simmonds.[11]
The opening round and held-over qualifying matches were played on 16 and 17 August.[21] The defending champion Fan lost 1–5 to Michael Judge in his held-over qualifying match.[22] World number three Selby lost his held-over qualifier 2–5 to Yuan Sijun, despite making a 137 break.[23] World number two Trump played his held-over qualifier in a waistcoat borrowed from Xiao Guodong after his luggage did not arrive in Fürth; he defeated Noppon Saengkham 5–2.[24]
The third round consisted of the last 16 players and was contested on 19 August.[21] Tied at 4–4 with Ajaib, Trump required foul points from snookers in the deciding frame. Ajaib went in-off whilst escaping from one of Trump's snookers, allowing Trump to win the match 5–4. Carter defeated David Grace, also in a deciding frame, while Wu beat Ryan Day 5–2. Wilson reached the quarter-finals with a 5–3 defeat of Murphy, while Si defeated Daniel Wells in a decider. Williams and Barry Hawkins reached the quarter-finals with 5–0 whitewash wins over Zhou and Robert Milkins respectively. Jamie Jones defeated Yan 5–3.[29]
Later rounds
The quarter-finals were also played on 19 August.[21] Williams defeated another Welsh compatriot Jones 5–1, making two centuries and three half-centuries in the match. Hawkins came from 2–3 behind against Trump to win three consecutive frames with breaks of 129, 110, and 92 for a 5–3 victory. It was the third successive time Hawkins had defeated Trump, following the 2021 Tour Championship and the 2022 Masters.[30] Trump's quarter-final loss meant that O'Sullivan retained the world number one position; Trump had needed to reach the final to secure the top spot in the world rankings.[31] In the other quarter-finals, Carter defeated Wu 5–3 while Wilson defeated Si 5–2.[30]
The semi-finals were played on 20 August as the best-of-11 frames.[21] Wilson moved into a 4–2 lead against Carter in their semi-final, winning two frames on re-spotted blacks. Carter then won three consecutive frames to lead 5–4, before Wilson made a 75 break to force a deciding frame, which he won to reach the 12th ranking final of his career.[32] In the other semi-final, Hawkins and Williams were tied at 2–2 at the mid-session interval, but Hawkins then won four consecutive frames with breaks of 67, 89, 131, and 79 to clinch the match 6–2.[33]
Hawkins and Wilson contested the best-of-17-frame final on 21 August.[21] The two players had previously contested the final of the 2019 Paul Hunter Classic at the same venue, with Hawkins winning 4–3 on that occasion. Wilson took a 3–1 lead at the mid-session interval, and led 6–2 after the first session.[34] He went on to win three of the four frames played in the evening session to clinch the match 9–3 and claim the fifth ranking title of his professional career. It was Hawkins's fourth consecutive loss in a ranking final.[35][36] Both players commented that they had underperformed during the final. Runner-up Hawkins said he was "disappointed" and that the match had been a "struggle all day", whilst Wilson said "we both lost our timing today".[35][37] In winning the event, Wilson progressed from eighth to sixth in the world snooker rankings.[38]
Main draw
The draw for the tournament is shown below. Numbers in brackets were players seedings, whilst players in bold denote match winners.[39]
Qualifying for the event took place between 15 and 17, and 22 and 24 July 2022 at the Morningside Arena in Leicester, England. Matches involving the defending champion and the top three ranked players were held over and played at the Stadthalle Fürth in Fürth.[39] Ronnie O'Sullivan was originally due to have his match against Sean O'Sullivan held-over but withdrew from the event. The match was still held over as he was replaced by Luke Simmonds.[39]
49 century breaks were made during the main stage of the tournament.[40] Zhang made the highest break of the event, a 143 in frame seven of his second round match with Murphy.[40]
A total of 32 century breaks were made during the qualifying stage of the tournament.[41] Both Vafaei and Zhang made maximum breaks for the first time in their careers during qualification.[41]
