John Higgins won the inaugural event defeating Ken Doherty 9–3 in the final.

The four lowest ranked qualifiers played the wild-card players, winning all their four matches and advancing to the last-32.

Further top-ranked players were beaten in the last-16 stage, including Steve Davis, John Parrott and James Wattana.

[1] Three Scots, Stephen Hendry, Alan McManus and John Higgins, won their quarter-final matches and were joined in the semi-finals by Ken Doherty.

[1] The four lowest ranked qualifiers played four continental players, three from Germany and one from Belgium.