Stephen Hendry,
defending champion and
World Champion was the number 1 seed. Places were allocated to the top 16 players in the
world rankings. Players seeded 15 and 16 played in the wild-card round against the winner of the
qualifying event,
Ronnie O'Sullivan (ranked 57), and
Peter Ebdon (ranked 21), who was the wild-card selection.
Peter Ebdon,
David Roe and 18-year-old Ronnie O'Sullivan were making their debuts in the
Masters. ==Wild-card round==