The Masters is a professional invitational snooker tournament being held annually since 1975. It is one of the most prestigious competition for the sport which is also considered as part of the Triple Crown events, alongside with World Championship and the UK Championship.

It was held for the first time at the West Centre Hotel in London. Now since 2012, the event has been staged at the iconic Alexandra Palace in North London, which attracts sell-out crowd.

Also, in 1984 only ten leading players were invited to take part in the competition, however, the standard invitees have been changed to the top 16 players in the world rankings with the addition of two or three wild-card places in tournaments held between 1990 and 2010.

There were a total of three maximum breaks that have the tournament produced all throughout its history, all by overseas players. Canada’s Kirk Stevens made the first in 1984, China’s Ding Junhui in 2007, and Hong Kong’s Marco Fu in 2015.

Ronnie O’Sullivan holds the record for the most Masters titles, after winning the tournament for seven times (1995, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2014, 2016, and 2017), he appeared in four successive finals from 2004 to 2007, winning in 2005 and 2007. He won his seventh in 2017 by winning his second Masters title in a row and third in four years; that was also his 12^th Masters final in 23 appearances.

In 2016, the Masters trophy was renamed as Paul Hunter Trophy to commemorate the three-time champion, who died in 2006 at the age of 27.