2008 Malta Cup

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.

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:

• 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.

Group 1

POS	Player	MP	MW	MT	ML	FW	FL	FD	PTS
1	Template:Flagicon John Higgins	4	3	1	0	18	6	+12	7
2	Template:Flagicon Joe Perry	4	2	1	1	12	12	0	5
3	Template:Flagicon Ryan Day	4	1	2	1	12	12	0	4
4	Template:Flagicon Ali Carter	4	1	1	2	12	12	0	3
5	Template:Flagicon 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	Template:Flagicon Ken Doherty	4	4	0	0	18	6	+12	8
2	Template:Flagicon Marco Fu	4	2	1	1	15	9	+6	5
3	Template:Flagicon Neil Robertson	4	2	1	1	13	11	+2	5
4	Template:Flagicon Stephen Lee	4	1	0	3	9	15	−6	2
5	Template:Flagicon 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	Template:Flagicon Shaun Murphy	4	4	0	0	19	5	+14	8
2	Template:Flagicon Stephen Hendry	4	2	1	1	12	12	0	5
3	Template:Flagicon Stephen Maguire	4	1	2	1	12	12	+0	4
4	Template:Flagicon Mark Selby	4	1	1	2	11	13	−2	3
5	Template:Flagicon 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	Template:Flagicon Ding Junhui	4	3	1	0	17	7	+10	7
2	Template:Flagicon Dominic Dale	4	3	0	1	14	10	+4	6
3	Template:Flagicon Peter Ebdon	4	1	1	2	11	13	−2	3
4	Template:Flagicon Mark Williams	4	1	1	2	9	15	−6	3
5	Template:Flagicon 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

Final

Final: Best of 17 frames Hilton Conference Center, Portomaso, Malta, 10 February 2008.
Ken Doherty	3–9	Shaun Murphy
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

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