Sponsored by the cigarette company Benson & Hedges, the event had a total prize fund of £650,000, with £175,000 going to the winner.

Matthew Stevens was the tournament's defending champion, but he lost in the second round to Paul Hunter, who went on to reach the final with victories over Peter Ebdon in the quarter-finals and Stephen Hendry in the semi-finals.

Hunter's opponent in the final was Fergal O'Brien, who had defeated Dave Harold in his semi-final.

The Masters is an invitational snooker tournament that was first held in 1975; the 2001 competition saw the top-16 players from the snooker world rankings play and a sponsors' selection entrant and the Benson and Hedges Championship victor invited to participate as wild cards.

[4][5] Sponsored by the tobacco company Benson & Hedges and organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association,[6] it had a total prize fund of £650,000, with £175,000 going to the winner; the host broadcaster was the BBC.

[7] Stephen Hendry, the winner of 32 ranking titles, commented, "In my last four tournaments, I've had two semis, a quarter and a final.

The Benson and Hedges Championship held at the Willie Thorne Snooker Centre, Malvern from 5 to 16 November 2000, determined one qualifier for the Masters' main draw.

[16] Shaun Murphy defeated Andrew Atkinson, Gary Ponting, Hugh Abernethy, Ali Carter, Nick Walker, Ryan Day and Mark Davis to reach the final where he played Stuart Bingham, who beat Colm Gilcreest, Barry Cox, Craig Harrison, Sean Storey, Gary Wilkinson and Andy Hicks.

[16] David McLellan achieved his first maximum break, the second of the season, and the 40th in professional snooker in the last frame of his second round match with Steve Meakin.

[5][19] Murphy, a former United Kingdom Under-15 title winner, made breaks of 113, 102 and 84 from frames two to four to beat world number 15 Marco Fu 6–1 but failed to become the first player to achieve three century breaks in a row at the Masters when he could not pot a green ball in the fourth frame.

[20] Jimmy White, the world number 18 whose wild card allowed him to enter the Masters for the 20th time, took 85 minutes to defeat Joe Swail 6–1, which included a total clearance of 136 in frame seven.

Hunter secured the 42-minute final frame for a 6–5 victory to end a match that lasted almost three hours and earn his first win at the arena.

Hendry made breaks of 94, 56, 78 and 71 for five frames in a row and a 6–4 victory; Murphy compiled 15 points in that time.

[23][24] The 1995 semi-finalist Peter Ebdon took 3 hours and 40 minutes and made breaks of 135 and 104 in beating Alan McManus 6–4.

[25][26] John Parrott, a three-time Masters runner-up,[27] played the world number five Stephen Lee.

[28] Parrott took the half-hour final frame to win 6–5 in his first UK victory since the first round of the 2000 World Snooker Championship.

"[27] There were 2,374 spectators watching Ronnie O'Sullivan play White, the largest crowd for a non-final Masters game in 18 years.

[31] Harold called it "one of the best wins of my career",[32] while Parrott admitted blame for losing, "I had enough chances to sink a battleship but the vital ball just kept scuppering me.

[33] Alan Chamberlain, the match referee, sought to maintain order,[34] and White asked for all the interrupters to be ejected.

[33] Ahead 3–1, White left a red ball on the edge of one of the centre pockets, allowing Hendry to make a 45 clearance for frame four.

[5] Hunter took the lead with breaks of 60 and 65 in frame nine won him and then secured the match 6–4 on a fluked green to the centre pocket and a clearance up to the pink ball.

"[38] Hendry commented Hunter was better that day but felt he could have won had he potted a quarter of the long-range shots he played, adding, "It's disappointing to lose any match anywhere and this is no exception.

[45] He earned £175,000 prize money for winning the competition,[12][42] which was his first major victory since the 1998 Welsh Open.

[4][5] Players highlighted in bold are the winners of the Benson and Hedges Tournament from the quarter-finals to the final.