Tournament information | |
---|---|
Dates | 6–9 October 2022 |
Venue | Hong Kong Coliseum |
City | Hong Kong |
Organisation |
|
Format | Non-ranking event |
Total prize fund | £314,000 |
Winner's share | £100,000 |
Highest break | Marco Fu (HKG) (147) |
Final | |
Champion | Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) |
Runner-up | Marco Fu (HKG) |
Score | 6–4 |
← 2017 |
The 2022 Hong Kong Masters was an invitational professional snooker tournament that took place from 6 to 9 October 2022 at the Hong Kong Coliseum in Hong Kong. Organised by the Hong Kong Billiard Sports Control Council and the World Snooker Tour as part of the 2022–23 snooker season, the tournament was staged for the first time since the 2017 edition. It was the first professional snooker tournament held outside Europe, as well as the first major sporting event held in Hong Kong, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The winner received £100,000 from a total prize purse of £314,000.
Two native Hong Kong players and the top six players in the snooker world rankings as they stood after the 2022 World Snooker Championship were invited to take part. Overseas players were granted a limited exemption from Hong Kong's COVID-19 regulations, enabling them to travel between the venue and their hotel without quarantining. Zhao Xintong was forced to withdraw after he tested positive for COVID-19, and was replaced in the draw by Mark Williams.
Neil Robertson was the defending champion, having defeated Ronnie O'Sullivan 6–3 in the final of the 2017 edition, but he lost 4–6 to O'Sullivan in the semi-finals. Hong Kong native Marco Fu had taken time away from the sport after undergoing eye surgery in 2017, and then did not compete professionally for over two years following the 2020 Welsh Open, due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. However, he defeated Mark Selby 5–2 in the quarter-finals and made the fifth maximum break of his career in the deciding frame of his semi-final against John Higgins. The highest of the 18 century breaks made during the event, Fu's 147 marked the seventh time in snooker history that a player won a deciding frame with a maximum. O'Sullivan defeated Fu 6–4 in the final to win the tournament for the first time. Around 9,000 spectators attended the final, setting a new record for the largest live audience at a snooker match.