2006 Masters (snooker)

The 2006 Masters (officially the 2006 SAGA Insurance Masters) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place from 15 to 22 January 2006 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England. It was the 32nd edition of the tournament, and the last time that the tournament was held at this venue. The tournament was part of the 2005/2006 season.

John Higgins won his 2nd Masters title by defeating defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–9 in a reverse of last year's final.

Field
Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan was the number 1 seed with World Champion Shaun Murphy seeded 2. Places were allocated to the leading players in the world rankings. With Murphy having a ranking of 21, Ian McCulloch, ranked 16, was not an automatic invitation. Players seeded 15 and 16 played in the wild-card round against the winner of the qualifying event, Stuart Bingham (ranked 37), and McCulloch, who was the wild-card selection. Stuart Bingham and Ian McCulloch were making their debuts in the Masters.

Prize fund
The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:

Qualifying stage

 * Winner: £2,000
 * Runner-up: £680
 * Semi-final: £250
 * Quarter-final: £105
 * Total: £3,600

Televised stage

 * Winner: £125,000
 * Runner Up: £60,000
 * Semi-final: £30,000
 * Quarter-final: £15,000
 * Last 16: £10,000
 * Last 18 (seeded): £10,000
 * Last 18 (wild-cards): £2,000


 * Highest break: £10,000
 * Maximum break: £25,000

Wild-card round
In the preliminary "wild-card round", the two wild-card players were drawn against the players seeded 15th and 16th:

Qualifying
The 2005 Masters Qualifying Event was held between 20 and 23 November 2005 at Pontin's in Prestatyn, Wales. The winner who qualified for the tournament, was Stuart Bingham.

Televised stage centuries
Total: 11
 * 139, 138, 100 – Ronnie O'Sullivan
 * 138, 100 – Peter Ebdon
 * 116, 102 – Graeme Dott
 * 115, 101 – Shaun Murphy
 * 110 – John Higgins
 * 101 – Stephen Lee

Qualifying stage centuries

 * 147, 114, 109, 101 – Stuart Bingham
 * 140, 106, 100 – Fergal O'Brien
 * 132, 120, 116, 116 – Ding Junhui
 * 132, 106, 101 – Barry Hawkins
 * 130, 100 – Ryan Day
 * 127, 105 – Judd Trump
 * 127 – Jamie Cope
 * 125, 117, 114, 111 – Robin Hull


 * 125, 102, 101 – Joe Swail
 * 122 – Michael Judge
 * 120 – Ricky Walden
 * 114 – Patrick Wallace
 * 112, 100 – Alfie Burden
 * 111 – James Tatton
 * 110 – Lee Spick
 * 107 – Ali Carter