Sponsored by the cigarette company Benson & Hedges, the event featured the top 16 from the snooker world rankings and two wild cards.

Paul Hunter was the tournament's defending champion and qualified for the final with victories over Stephen Lee, Peter Ebdon and Alan McManus in the preceding rounds as Mark Williams reached the same stage by defeating Mark King, Stephen Hendry and Jimmy White.

Ronnie O'Sullivan compiled the tournament's highest break, a 138 total clearance, in the fourth frame of his first round match with Joe Swail.

[6] Sponsored by the tobacco company Benson & Hedges,[4] it had a total prize fund of £695,000, with £190,000 going to the winner,[7] and the host broadcaster was the BBC.

[7] World champion Ronnie O'Sullivan was installed as the favourite by bookmakers to win the tournament.

[8][9] Stephen Hendry, the six-times Masters champion, commented on his prospects of a seventh title: "There is no doubt that this is one of the most difficult tournaments to win.

[12] Ryan Day qualified for the final with victories over Steven Bennie, Drew Henry, Paul Davies, Stuart Bingham, Ian McCulloch, Lee Walker and Sean Storey, where he played Hugh Abernethy, who defeated Ian Sargeant, Dominic Dale, Nick Dyson, Anthony Davies, Mark Gray and Shaun Murphy.

[13] Day became the competition's first Welsh winner since 1995 when he beat Abernethy 9–5 to enter the Masters and won £5,000 prize money for winning.

[14] Murphy compiled a maximum break in frame two of his 5–2 Last 32 win over Adrian Rosa, the second of his career, the second of the season, the fourth in tournament history and the 44th overall.

[a][15] At 19 years and 3 months, Murphy was the second youngest player to achieve a maximum break in professional snooker.

[7][17] Fergal O'Brien, the 2001 runner-up, overturned a 2–5 deficit to the sponsor's wild card selection Steve Davis and took the final four frames to win 6–5 with a match-high break of 97.

[22] John Higgins, the 1999 Masters champion, lost the first two frames to fellow Scot Alan McManus but won the next four to lead 4–2.

[24] 1984 Masters winner Jimmy White led Matthew Stevens 5–0 before the latter stopped a whitewash with a 73 break in frame six.

[29] 1998 Masters champion Mark Williams took 1 hour and 53 minutes to defeat world number 13 Mark King 6–1, including a clearance of 127 in the fourth frame and breaks of 58, 40 and 48; King stopped a whitewash by winning frame two on 55 break.

[36] O'Sullivan led the final frame 49–19 but a missed safety shot on the red allowed White to achieve a clearance ending on the blue ball and win the match 6–5.

[7] Ahead 2–1, Hunter failed to pot the pink to win the fourth frame, allowing McManus to achieve a clearance from the 14th red to the black to tie at 2–2.

[43] Williams said that White had recovered "really well" and the last frame put a plethora of pressure on both players but noted his form against Hunter had no meaning for the final.

[7] This was the first meeting between the two players since the 2001 Champions Cup earlier in the season and the final was their highest ranking match since the 2000 Grand Prix where Williams beat Hunter 5–3 in the quarter-finals.

The eighth frame saw Williams end on a 56 break after missing the 13th red by undercutting it to a top corner.

[7][45][46] On resumption of the match, Hunter won the ninth frame with a break of 61 and the tenth to level at 5–5 when Williams left the black on the inside of the top-right corner pocket from poor contact.

[47] Hunter returned the score to a tie with an 84 break in frame 14 and took the lead for the first time in the next following errors from Williams.

[51] He was third player in history after Cliff Thorburn and Hendry to successfully defend the Masters since it was first held in 1975,[7] and the fifth to have won it for a second time.

"[7] Williams said of his fifth loss in the final of a tournament extending back to the 2000 Grand Prix: "I feel sick because that was one I threw away.

The highest break of the competition, a 138, was compiled by O'Sullivan in the fourth frame of his first round match with Swail, earning him £21,000 prize money and the Gold Medal award.