The 2002 LG Cup was a professional snooker tournament held from 5 to 13 October 2002, at the Guild Hall, in Preston, Lancashire, England.

Chris Small, who has the spinal condition ankylosing spondylitis, was a 150/1 outsider when he won the tournament by defeating fellow Scot Alan McManus nine frames to five (9–5) in the final.

Stephen Lee compiled the tournament's highest break of a 141 total clearance in his second round match against Ryan Day.

[2] Sponsored by the Korean multinational conglomerate LG for the second year in a row,[1] it had a prize fund of £597,200,[5] and was broadcast on the BBC.

[7][8] The successful qualifiers included the likes of Ryan Day, Shokat Ali, Ian McCulloch, Jimmy Michie, Robin Hull, Patrick Wallace and Jamie Burnett.

[11] Anthony Davies made breaks of 84, 85 and 72 in his 5–0 whitewash of Marcus Campbell and would play world number 4 John Higgins in the next round.

[12] Ali, Pakistan's number one ranked player, compiled breaks of 64, 51, 95 and 98 in a 5–1 victory over John Parrott, the 1991 world champion.

[13] Fergal O'Brien edged out Nick Dyson 5–3, while Tony Drago and Gerard Greene defeated Gary Wilkinson and Dominic Dale respectively by the same scoreline.

[11] Drew Henry was also beaten by exactly the same scoreline by Michael Holt,[11] and Anthony Hamilton overcame Ian McCulloch to win 5–4 in a game that concluded past midnight on 5 October after a final frame safety exchange on the pink ball.

[16] Six-time world champion Steve Davis achieved the competition's third whitewash with a 5–0 victory over the world number 46 Jamie Burnett to set up a match with fellow Londoner Jimmy White for the first time in a ranking tournament since the semi-finals of the 1995 International Open.

[17] World number 29 Chris Small, who suffers from the spinal condition ankylosing spondylitis, beat Mark Davis 5–2.

[18] Scottish Open runner-up David Gray won 5–1 against Atthasit Mahitthi, while Patrick Wallace came from 2–0 and 4–3 behind to beat Dave Harold 5–4 in a 4-hour, 34-minute game.

Holt overcame Quinten Hann 5–4 in a ¼ hour battle on the final pink and black balls in the deciding frame of their match.

Leading 49–16 with five un-potted red balls on the table, Davis fluked one of them and went on to produce a break of 21 to win the match that ran past midnight due to other fixtures running longer than expected.

Wallace dedicated the victory to his practice partner and former Northern Ireland Amateur Championship runner-up Barry McNamee who died when a car struck him that year.

[28] Of the other two second round matches, Matthew Stevens lost 1–5 to Gray and Michie won 5–2 against the world number 11 Mark King.

O'Sullivan prevented the first whitewash of his career since the 1997 China International with victory in a disjointed frame five but Small won the match with a 78 clearance in the sixth.

Michie responded with breaks of 66 and 98 to force a final frame decider, which he won on a long-range pink ball shot for a 5–4 scoreline.

[43] A male spectator was ejected from the Preston Guild Hall during frame eight for audible snoring and it was twice restarted because of separate safety shot stalemates.

[45] When play resumed in the second session, a break of 62 from Small after McManus missed a mid-range red ball to a top corner pocket for the lead.

More safety errors from McManus gave Small a chance to produce breaks of 47 and 27 in frame ten as the former did not record a single point in this period.

[46] It transpired to be the only ranking event victory of Small's career having retired from professional snooker three years later as a result of his affliction.

[53] McManus said he was pleased for Small and did not believe his game with Davis wore him out despite appearing visibly tired, "But from my point of view it was an anti-climax.

"[53] The victory, according to Phil Yates of The Times, made Small possibly, "one of the most unlikely winners of a leading competition for years" because of his reputation of being a journeyman and him requiring monthly injections to reduce the effect of his spinal condition.