The 2003 Welsh Open (officially the 2003 Regal Welsh Open) was a professional

ranking A ranking is a relationship between a set of items, often recorded in a list, such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than", or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak ...

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets: one at each corner and ...

tournament that took place from 22 to 26 January at the

Cardiff International Arena Cardiff International Arena (formerly known as Cardiff International Arena & Convention Centre and Motorpoint Arena Cardiff and currently, for sponsorship reasons, as Utilita Arena Cardiff) is an indoor exhibition centre and events arena locate ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

Paul Hunter Paul Alan Hunter (14 October 1978 – 9 October 2006) was an English professional snooker player. He was a three-time Masters (snooker), Masters champion, winning the event in 2001 Masters (snooker), 2001, 2002 Masters (snooker), 2002, a ...

was the defending champion, but he lost in the semi-finals 2–6 against Mark Williams. Williams in turn lost to

Stephen Hendry Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish retired professional snooker player and a current Sports commentator, commentator and pundit. One of the most successful players in snooker history, he turned professional in 1985, ag ...

9–5 in the final. Hendry won his third Welsh Open title and the 34th

title of his career.

Tournament summary

Defending champion

was the number 1 seed with

World Champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

Peter Ebdon Peter David Ebdon (born 27 August 1970) is an English retired professional snooker player who is a former world champion and current coach. Ebdon won nine ranking titles during his career, placing him in joint 14th position (with John Parrott ...

seeded 2. The remaining places were allocated to players based on the world rankings.

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below: Winner: £82,500
Runner-up: £42,500
Semi-final: £21,250
Quarter-final: £11,700
Last 16: £9,600
Last 32: £7,800
Last 48: £4,000
Last 64: £3,150 Last 80: £2,150
Last 96: £1,450 Stage one highest break: £1,800
Stage two highest break: £7,500 Stage one maximum break: £5,000
Stage two maximum break: £20,000 Total: £597,200

Main draw

Final

Qualifying

Round 1

Best of 9 frames

Round 2–5

Century breaks

* 140, 127, 124, 113, 108, 104

* 139

Robin Hull Robin Hull (born 16 August 1974) is a Finnish former professional snooker player. For some time, he was the sole Nordic countries, Nordic player on the game's Snooker world rankings, main tour. He is known as a solid -builder, having compiled o ...

* 133

Leo Fernandez Leo Fernandez (born 5 July 1976 in Limerick) is an Irish former professional snooker player. Snooker career Fernandez's best ranking event progress was reaching the last 16 of the 2003 Welsh Open, defeating opponents including fellow Irishman F ...

* 132

Ali Carter Allister Carter (born 25 July 1979) is an English professional snooker player. He has twice been a World Championship finalist, in 2008 and 2012, losing both finals to Ronnie O'Sullivan. He has won six ranking titles and briefly reached number t ...

* 128 Michael Holt * 127

John Higgins John Higgins (born 18 May 1975) is a Scottish professional snooker player from Wishaw in North Lanarkshire. Since turning professional in 1992, he has won 33 ranking titles, placing him in third position on the List of snooker players by num ...

* 120 Anthony Hamilton * 116, 100 Mark Williams * 110

* 109, 104

Ronnie O'Sullivan Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan (born 5 December 1975) is an English professional snooker player. Widely recognised as one of the most talented and accomplished players in snooker history, he has won the World Snooker Championship seven times, a m ...

* 109

Alan McManus Alan McManus (born 21 January 1971) is a Scottish retired professional snooker player, and a current commentator and pundit for ITV and Eurosport on snooker coverage. A mainstay of the world's top sixteen during the 1990s and 2000s, he has wo ...

* 101, 101

Marco Fu Marco Fu Ka-chun (; born 8 January 1978) is a Hong Kong professional snooker player. He is a three-time snooker world rankings, ranking event winner, having won the 2007 Grand Prix (snooker), 2007 Grand Prix, the 2013 Australian Goldfie ...

References

{{Snooker season 2002/2003

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

Welsh Open Open (snooker) Welsh Open, 2003