Malta Cup
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 Snooker tournaments |
| Ranking tournaments |
| World Championship |
| UK Championship |
| Grand Prix |
| Welsh Open |
| China Open |
| Shanghai Masters |
| Northern Ireland Trophy |
| Other tournaments |
| Masters |
| Premier League |
| Pot Black |
| Malta Cup |
| Withdrawn tournaments |
| See: Snooker tournaments |
The Malta Cup is a professional snooker tournament that has been on the World Snooker calendar since the 2004/05 season. It replaced the European Open (which had been held in Malta at that time) as the sole ranking tournament in Europe, outside the British Isles.
The tournament lost its status as a ranking tournament starting with the 2007/08 season. The tournament will still be held, but as an invitation event. It will be played at the Hilton Conference Centre, Malta, between February 4 until February 10, 2008. The world's top 16 players were invited, but Ronnie O'Sullivan and Steve Davis declined to compete, so World #17 Joe Swail and #18 Joe Perry were invited. Maltese wildcards Tony Drago and Alex Borg, and two further wildcards chosen by World Snooker (Marco Fu and Dominic Dale, both ranking event winners in 2007) make up the 20-man field.
It will be the second World Snooker tournament of the season, after the Grand Prix, to operate a round robin stage. There will be four groups of five players, with only the top player in each group making it through to the semi-finals. Each match in the group stage will played over a set six frames (a change from the first-to-x-frames format of the Grand Prix), the semi-finals best of 11 frames and the final best of 17 frames.
In 2006 (the 2005/06 season), the tournament, won by Ken Doherty, became the first world ranking event in which the quarter-final line-up did not include any Englishmen. Previously, the fewest Englishmen to reach the quarter-finals of a ranking tournament had been one, in the 1997 World Championship (also won by Doherty).
In 2007 (the 2006/07 season), the tournament, won by Shaun Murphy, was the 200th world ranking tournament to be staged.
[edit] Winners
| Year | Winner | Opponent | Final score | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Stephen Hendry-  Scotland |
Graeme Dott- Scotland |
9 - 7 | 2004/05 |
| 2006 | Ken Doherty-  Ireland |
John Higgins- Scotland |
9 - 8 | 2005/06 |
| 2007 | Shaun Murphy-  England |
Ryan Day-  Wales |
9 - 4 | 2006/07 |
| 2008 | Shaun Murphy- England |
Ken Doherty- Ireland |
9 - 3 | 2007/08 |
