2008 Malta Cup

Tournament information
Dates	4–10 February 2008 (2008-02-04 – 2008-02-10)
Venue	Hilton Conference Center
City	Portomaso
Country	Malta
Organisation	WPBSA
Format	Non-ranking event
Total prize fund	£76,000
Winner's share	£20,000
Highest break	Shaun Murphy (ENG) (137)
Final
Champion	Shaun Murphy
Runner-up	Ken Doherty
Score	9–3
← 2007 2016 →

The 2008 Malta Cup was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 4 and 10 February 2008 at the Hilton Conference Center in Portomaso, Malta.

The Gambling Commission looked at allegations of match-fixing during the round-robin stage of the tournament.^[1]

Shaun Murphy won the title by defeating Ken Doherty 9–3 in the final.

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:^[2]

• Winner: £20,000
• Runner-Up: £9,000
• Semi-final: £4,500
• 2nd place in group: £2,750
• 3rd place in group: £2,500
• 4th place in group: £2,250
• 5th place in group: £2,000
• Maximum break: £10,000
• Total: £76,000

Group stage

Group matches were played over 6 frames. A win was worth 2 points and a tie 1 point. The top player from each group qualified to the semi-finals.^[3][4]

Group 1

POS Player MP MW MT ML FW FL FD PTS 1 John Higgins 4 3 1 0 18 6 +12 7 2 Joe Perry 4 2 1 1 12 12 0 5 3 Ryan Day 4 1 2 1 12 12 0 4 4 Ali Carter 4 1 1 2 12 12 0 3 5 Alex Borg 4 0 1 3 6 18 −12 1

John Higgins 6–0 Alex Borg Joe Perry 3–3 Ryan Day John Higgins 4–2 Ryan Day Ali Carter 5–1 Alex Borg Joe Perry 4–2 Alex Borg John Higgins 3–3 Ali Carter Joe Perry 4–2 Ali Carter Ryan Day 3–3 Alex Borg John Higgins 5–1 Joe Perry Ali Carter 2–4 Ryan Day

Group 2

POS Player MP MW MT ML FW FL FD PTS 1 Ken Doherty 4 4 0 0 18 6 +12 8 2 Marco Fu 4 2 1 1 15 9 +6 5 3 Neil Robertson 4 2 1 1 13 11 +2 5 4 Stephen Lee 4 1 0 3 9 15 −6 2 5 Joe Swail 4 0 0 4 5 19 −14 0

Ken Doherty 4–2 Marco Fu Neil Robertson 5–1 Stephen Lee Ken Doherty 4–2 Stephen Lee Joe Swail 1–5 Marco Fu Ken Doherty 5–1 Joe Swail Neil Robertson 3–3 Marco Fu Neil Robertson 4–2 Joe Swail Stephen Lee 1–5 Marco Fu Ken Doherty 5–1 Neil Robertson Joe Swail 1–5 Stephen Lee

Group 3

POS Player MP MW MT ML FW FL FD PTS 1 Shaun Murphy 4 4 0 0 19 5 +14 8 2 Stephen Hendry 4 2 1 1 12 12 0 5 3 Stephen Maguire 4 1 2 1 12 12 +0 4 4 Mark Selby 4 1 1 2 11 13 −2 3 5 Tony Drago 4 0 0 4 6 18 −12 0

Shaun Murphy 6–0 Tony Drago Stephen Hendry 4–2 Mark Selby Stephen Maguire 4–2 Tony Drago Shaun Murphy 4–2 Mark Selby Stephen Hendry 4–2 Tony Drago Shaun Murphy 4–2 Stephen Maguire Mark Selby 4–2 Tony Drago Stephen Hendry 3–3 Stephen Maguire Shaun Murphy 5–1 Stephen Hendry Stephen Maguire 3–3 Mark Selby

Group 4

POS Player MP MW MT ML FW FL FD PTS 1 Ding Junhui 4 3 1 0 17 7 +10 7 2 Dominic Dale 4 3 0 1 14 10 +4 6 3 Peter Ebdon 4 1 1 2 11 13 −2 3 4 Mark Williams 4 1 1 2 9 15 −6 3 5 Graeme Dott 4 0 1 3 9 15 −6 1

Graeme Dott 2–4 Dominic Dale Peter Ebdon 2–4 Ding Junhui Graeme Dott 3–3 Ding Junhui Mark Williams 2–4 Dominic Dale Graeme Dott 2–4 Mark Williams Peter Ebdon 2–4 Dominic Dale Mark Williams 3–3 Peter Ebdon Ding Junhui 4–2 Dominic Dale Graeme Dott 2–4 Peter Ebdon Mark Williams 0–6 Ding Junhui

Knock-out stage

^[3][4]

	Semi-finals Best of 11 frames					Final Best of 17 frames
	John Higgins		2
	Ken Doherty		6
						Ken Doherty		3
						Shaun Murphy		9
	Shaun Murphy		6
	Ding Junhui		5

Final

Final: Best of 17 frames Hilton Conference Center, Portomaso, Malta, 10 February 2008.[3][4]
Ken Doherty  Ireland	3–9	Shaun Murphy  England
Afternoon: 91–1 (91), 24–57, 36–78, 8–100, 22–87, 75–44, 0–67, 39–56 Evening: 0–110 (75), 66–34, 30–74, 0–76 (76)
91	Highest break	76
0	Century breaks	0
1	50+ breaks	2

Century breaks

^[4]

• 137, 110, 104 – Shaun Murphy
• 134, 127, 118 – Ken Doherty
• 129, 100 – Ali Carter
• 128, 103 – Peter Ebdon
• 127, 125, 125, 123, 106 – Ding Junhui
• 127, 110, 101 – Mark Selby
• 116, 107 – Neil Robertson
• 113 – Ryan Day
• 108, 106, 101 – Marco Fu
• 103 – Stephen Hendry

References