2003 European Open (snooker)

The 2003 European Open was a professional snooker tournament and the fifth of eight WPBSA ranking events in the 2002/2003 season, following the Welsh Open. It was held from 11 to 16 March 2003 at the Palace Hotel in Torquay, England. This marked the first and only time when any of the editions of this tournament was not held outside the British Isles. Ronnie O'Sullivan won his 12th ranking title by defeating Stephen Hendry 9–6 in the final. O'Sullivan went on to win back-to-back ranking titles – his next coming at the 2003 Irish Masters, just two weeks later, where he triumphed over John Higgins in a deciding frame.

Tournament summary
Defending champion Stephen Hendry was the number 1 seed with World Champion Peter Ebdon 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: £44,000
 * Final: £22,000
 * Semi-final: £11,000
 * Quarter-final: £6,800
 * Last 16: £4,000
 * Last 32: £2,600
 * Last 48: £1,450
 * Last 64: £1,050


 * Last 80: £700
 * Last 96: £375
 * Stage one highest break: £1,000
 * Stage two highest break: £3,000
 * Stage one maximum break: £5,000
 * Stage two maximum break: £20,000
 * Total: £250,000

Round 1
Best of 9 frames

Qualifying stage centuries

 * 140 – Barry Pinches
 * 138, 111 – Robert Milkins
 * 133, 133, 101 – Adrian Gunnell
 * 131, 115 – Stephen Maguire
 * 130 – Antony Bolsover
 * 128 – Marco Fu
 * 128 – Ali Carter
 * 121 – Jin Long
 * 119 – David Gray
 * 114, 103 – Stefan Mazrocis
 * 114 – Andrew Higginson


 * 113, 111 – Troy Shaw
 * 113 – Mike Dunn
 * 113 – Luke Fisher
 * 109, 106 – Barry Hawkins
 * 108 – Shaun Murphy
 * 101 – Mark Davis
 * 101 – Bjorn Haneveer
 * 100 – Sean Storey
 * 100 – Rod Lawler
 * 100 – Munraj Pal

Televised stage centuries

 * 142, 140, 139, 129, 126, 121, 112, 102 – Ronnie O'Sullivan
 * 136 – Mark King
 * 132 – Paul Hunter
 * 123, 117, 110, 101 – Stephen Hendry
 * 118 – Mark Williams


 * 113, 111 – Peter Ebdon
 * 112 – John Higgins
 * 102 – Robin Hull
 * 101 – Stephen Lee