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.

2003 European Open (snooker)

Prize fund

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

2003 European Open (snooker)

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

Main draw

Final

Qualifying

Round 1

Best of 9 frames

Round 2–5

Century breaks

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

References

2003

European Open

European Open

European Open

Snooker competitions in England

Sport in Torquay

2003 European Open (snooker)