John Higgins defeated Ken Doherty 10–8 in the final to win his first Masters title.

Before his semi-final match Higgins had said, referring to the possibility of holding all three titles, "That triple crown would be a dream but it's going to be tough.

"[1] After his win, the term "Triple Crown" was used in a number of newspapers to describe Higgins' feat.

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:[4] Winner: £155,000 Runner-up: £80,000 Semi-finalist: £40,000 Quarter finalist: £26,000 Last 16: £15,000 Wild-card round: £9,000 High break Prize: £18,000 Maximum break: B&H Gold Award and a Honda car Total: £575,000 In the preliminary round, the wild-card players plays the 15th and 16th seeds:[4][5] [4][5] David Gray won the qualifying tournament, known as the 1998 Benson & Hedges Championship at the time.

[6] Total: 12[7] James Wattana's century was scored in the wild-card round.