The 2004 Welsh Open was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 15 and 25 January at the Welsh Institute of Sport in Cardiff, Wales.
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 15–25 January 2004 |
| Venue | Welsh Institute of Sport |
| City | Cardiff |
| Country | Wales |
| Organisation | WPBSA |
| Format | Ranking event |
| Total prize fund | £450,000[1] |
| Winner's share | £52,000[1] |
| Highest break |  Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) (139) |
| Final | |
| Champion | Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) |
| Runner-up | Steve Davis (ENG) |
| Score | 9–8 |
← 2003 2005 → | |
Stephen Hendry was the defending champion, but he lost in the quarter-finals 4–5 against Marco Fu.
Ronnie O'Sullivan recovered from 5–8 down to defeat Steve Davis 9–8 in the final. This was O'Sullivan's 14th ranking title of his career.
Tournament summary
Defending champion Stephen Hendry was the number 1 seed with World Champion Mark Williams seeded 2. The remaining places were allocated to players based on the world rankings.
Prize fund
The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:[1]
Main draw
Final
| Final: Best of 17 frames. Referee: Paul Collier. Welsh Institute of Sport, Cardiff, Wales, 25 January 2004.[2] | ||
| Steve Davis (11) England | 8–9 | Ronnie O'Sullivan (3) England |
| Afternoon: 78–30, 74–0 (74), 72–30, 9–76 (58), 67–65, 45–84, 12–129 (125), 0–139 (139) Evening: 68–63 (O'Sullivan 62), 71–25 (66), 4–103 (103), 79–42 (53), 53–48, 0–118 (118), 40–81 (77), 55–74, 26–92 | ||
| 74 | Highest break | 139 |
| 0 | Century breaks | 4 |
| 3 | 50+ breaks | 7 |
Qualifying
Qualifying for the tournament took place at Pontins in Prestatyn, Wales between 9 and 13 December 2003.[3]
Round 1
Best of 9 frames
 Martin Dziewialtowski | 5–0 | Stephen Croft |
| Paul Wykes | 5–3 | Andy Neck |
| Matthew Couch | 5–4 |  Ian Preece |
| Andrew Norman | 5–1 | Carlo Giagnacovo |
| Peter Lines | 5–4 |  Ding Junhui |
| David Gilbert | w/o–w/d | Michael Rhodes |
| Tony Jones | 4–5 | Scott MacKenzie |
 Leo Fernandez | 5–2 | Garry Hardiman |
| Lee Walker | 5–1 | Stuart Mann |
| Bradley Jones | 5–3 | Ian Brumby |
| Simon Bedford | 5–1 |  Joe Meara |
| Munraj Pal | 3–5 | Luke Simmonds |
| Andrew Higginson | 5–2 |  Neil Robertson |
| Terry Murphy | 4–5 | Martin Gould |
| Rory McLeod | 5–4 | Adrian Rosa |
| Billy Snaddon | 0–5 | Gary Thomson |
