Grand Prix (snooker)

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The Grand Prix is a professional snooker tournament. It is the first of eight ranking tournaments. It has previously been known as the LG Cup and the Professional Players Tournament.

The tournament was created in 1982 as the Professional Players Tournament by the WPBSA, in order to provide another ranking event. Ray Reardon beat Jimmy White by 10 frames to 5 in the final to win the first prize of £5000.

In 1984 Rothmans started sponsoring the tournament, changed its name to the Rothmans Grand Prix, and moved its venue to the Hexagon Theatre, Reading. The tournament has had various sponsors and venues since. Previous sponsors include LG Electronics, who took over in 2001 and changed the tournament's name to the LG Cup. After LG withdrew their sponsorship, the Grand Prix name was revived for 2004 and was sponsored by totesport. For 2006, the event is sponsored by Royal London Watches.

The tournament was played at the Preston Guild Hall in October, at the start of the snooker season until 2005. In 2006 the venue was changed to the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre. Prize money for 2005 totalled £400,000, with the winner receiving £60,000.

The tournament has a flatter structure than most tournaments, with the top 32 players all coming in at the last 64 stage (in other tournaments there are only 16 players left when the players ranked 17-32 come in, and then the 16 winners of those matches face the top 16). It has usually been the season opener under its various guises. From the 2006 tournament onwards, a round-robin stage was introduced for the top 32 and 16 qualifiers [1].

These two facts have made it more common to see surprise results than in most other tournaments, with players such as Dominic Dale, Euan Henderson and Dave Harold all surprise finalists at the time. A player from outside the top 16 has reached the final roughly half the times the contest has been played, and few of those have become consistent stars. Until his victory in 2004 it was the only major title Ronnie O'Sullivan had not won.

[edit] Winners

Year	Winner	Opponent	Final score	Season
Professional Players Tournament
1982	Ray Reardon	Jimmy White	10 - 5	1982/83
1983	Tony Knowles	Joe Johnson	9 - 8	1983/84
Rothmans Grand Prix
1984	Dennis Taylor	Cliff Thorburn	10 - 2	1984/85
1985	Steve Davis	Dennis Taylor	10 - 9	1985/86
1986	Jimmy White	Rex Williams	10 - 6	1986/87
1987	Stephen Hendry	Dennis Taylor	10 - 7	1987/88
1988	Steve Davis	Alex Higgins	10 - 6	1988/89
1989	Steve Davis	Dean Reynolds	10 - 0	1989/90
1990	Stephen Hendry	Nigel Bond	10 - 5	1990/91
1991	Stephen Hendry	Steve Davis	10 - 6	1991/92
1992	Jimmy White	Ken Doherty	10 - 9	1992/93
Skoda Grand Prix
1993	Peter Ebdon	Ken Doherty	9 - 6	1993/94
1994	John Higgins	Dave Harold	9 - 6	1994/95
1995	Stephen Hendry	John Higgins	9 - 5	1995/96
Grand Prix
1996	Mark Williams	Euan Henderson	9 - 5	1996/97
1997	Dominic Dale	John Higgins	9 - 6	1997/98
1998	Stephen Lee	Marco Fu	9 - 2	1998/99
1999	John Higgins	Mark Williams	9 - 8	1999/00
2000	Mark Williams	Ronnie O'Sullivan	9 - 5	2000/01
LG Cup
2001	Stephen Lee	Peter Ebdon	9 - 4	2001/02
2002	Chris Small	Alan McManus	9 - 5	2002/03
2003	Mark Williams	John Higgins	9 - 5	2003/04
totesport Grand Prix
2004	Ronnie O'Sullivan	Ian McCulloch	9 - 5	2004/05
Grand Prix
2005	John Higgins	Ronnie O'Sullivan	9 - 2	2005/06
2006	Neil Robertson	Jamie Cope	9 - 5	2006/07

[edit] Records set in the 2005 final

In the 2005 final, John Higgins set two records:

His century breaks in the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth frames marked the first time a player had ever recorded centuries in four consecutive frames in a match during a ranking tournament.
He scored 494 points without reply, the greatest number in any professional snooker tournament.