Qualifying The Benson and Hedges Championship held at the Towers Snooker Club,
Mansfield from 4 to 15 November 2001 determined a
wild card qualifier for the Masters. Players ranked outside the top 16 in the world rankings were allowed to enter.
Ryan Day qualified for the final with victories over Steven Bennie,
Drew Henry,
Paul Davies,
Stuart Bingham,
Ian McCulloch,
Lee Walker and
Sean Storey, where he played
Hugh Abernethy, who defeated Ian Sargeant,
Dominic Dale,
Nick Dyson,
Anthony Davies,
Mark Gray and
Shaun Murphy. Day became the competition's first Welsh winner since 1995 when he beat Abernethy 9–5 to enter the Masters and won £5,000 prize money for winning. Murphy compiled a
maximum break in frame two of his 5–2 Last 32 win over
Adrian Rosa, the second of his career, the second of the season, the fourth in tournament history and the 44th overall. At 19 years and 3 months, Murphy was the second youngest player to achieve a maximum break in professional snooker.
Round 1 The first round, in which the two wild cards and those ranked 15th and 16th participated, took place from 3 to 4 February.
Fergal O'Brien, the 2001 runner-up, overturned a 2–5 deficit to the sponsor's wild card selection
Steve Davis and took the final four frames to win 6–5 with a match-high of 97. Day, playing with a different
cue stick after leaving his old one on a train returning from an event in Glasgow, beat world number 15
Dave Harold 6–3 in his Masters debut following a from the to the in frame seven.
Round 2 compiled the tournament's highest of 138 in the second round. Both of the first round winners played and those ranked 1st to 14 played in the second round held from 3 to 6 February.
John Higgins, the
1999 Masters champion, lost the first two frames to fellow Scot
Alan McManus but won the next four to lead 4–2. McManus went 5–4 ahead with breaks of 50 and 102 before Higgins' 78 break in frame ten forced a final frame decider. McManus won the final frame on the brown for a 6–5 victory after Higgins went the brown trying to escape from a . Higgins did not attend the compulsory press conference because he was upset with his form.
1984 Masters winner
Jimmy White led
Matthew Stevens 5–0 before the latter stopped a
whitewash with a 73 break in frame six. White won frame seven and the match 6–1 with breaks of 32 and 36 overturning Stevens' 53–0 lead in that frame. O'Brien played two-time Masters runner-up
Ken Doherty, with O'Brien leading 4–0 before Doherty won three frames in a row to be 4–3 behind. O'Brien claimed frames eight and nine to win 6–5. Hendry took 138 minutes to whitewash Day 6–0 with breaks of 89, 60, 103, 91 and 84 and accumulated 572 points to Day's 120. Asked whether he was sympathetic to Day, Hendry replied, "Why?
Marcus Campbell didn't feel sorry for me. You just want to destroy an opponent. That's how it's always been with me." 1998 Masters champion
Mark Williams took 1 hour and 53 minutes to defeat world number 13
Mark King 6–1, including a clearance of 127 in the fourth frame and breaks of 58, 40 and 48; King stopped a whitewash by winning frame two on 55 break. O'Sullivan played
Joe Swail in the last first round match. O'Sullivan made breaks of 87, 77 and 108 to win the match 6–3, compiling 284 points to Swail's 11 in that time.
Quarter-finals The quarter-finals were held on 7 and 8 February. Both players commented they had sub-par performances during the match. Hunter said he had the knowledge that he would play Ebdon for a long period of time, adding: "I played well to go 3–1 up and I scored well when I was in the balls all night. I knew he would come back at me but I just concentrated on playing the balls as they were." O'Sullivan led 3–1 with breaks of 51 and 50, extending it to 5–2 by winning three of the next four frames. O'Sullivan commented he was quite angry because he lost a game he felt he could have won, "It's disappointing. The wheels have come off though there is nothing wrong with my game, it's just something I have got to deal with mentally and it's not something I want to air in the press."
Semi-finals qualified for the final but lost 10–9 to
Paul Hunter. Both of the semi-finals occurred on 9 February. It was McManus' 34th career semi-final and did not advance to the final of a competition for the first time since the
1999 Thailand Masters. Hunter said he was happy to qualify for the final because McManus was a decent participant. McManus said would not dwell over his defeat and wished Hunter the best of luck for the final. White and Williams played the other semi-final. During the concluding frame, White a red into the bottom , allowing Williams to clinch the frame 70–24 and the match 6–5. Williams had won all six matches against Hunter with a combined total of 30–9 in frames won. The referee for the final was
Jan Verhaas of the Netherlands. In the fifth frame, which lasted 35 minutes, Williams broke down on a 56 break in frame six, allowing Hunter to win the frame on the pink. Hunter claimed the seventh frame with breaks of 32 and 69. The eighth frame saw Williams end on a 56 break after missing the 13th red by undercutting it to a top corner. This enabled Hunter to produce a 36 clearance completed on the pink to end the first session 5–3 behind. In frame 13, Hunter was 54–24 behind when he obtained two snookers before missing the blue ball to the top-left corner pocket, allowing Williams to claim the frame. In the concluding frame, Williams scored 10 points before Hunter's break of 65 secured him a 10–9 win. He was third player in history after
Cliff Thorburn and Hendry to successfully defend the Masters since it was first held in 1975, and the fifth to have won it for a second time. Hunter earned £190,000 prize money for winning the event; his earnings for the campaign increased to £324,600, moving him past Higgins for the lead of the seasonal money list. He commented on the victory: "I'm so happy to have won the match — especially to retain the title. Only Stephen Hendry and Cliff Thorburn have won it in successive years — so I'm up there with them." Williams said of his fifth loss in the final of a tournament extending back to the 2000 Grand Prix: "I feel sick because that was one I threw away. I know I got close but a defeat like that could well knock me back to square one. I've got to put it out of my mind, but that's going to be tough. The more finals you lose, the less confidence you have." ==Main draw==