at the following year's event, he also won. he beat stephen lee 6–3 in the first round, peter ebdon 6–5 in the quarter-finals and alan mcmanus 6–5 in the semi-finals where he met mark williams in the final. hunter lost all of the first five frames, but won the match 10–9. hunter was only the third player to retain the masters along with cliff thorburn and stephen hendry. hunter also won his second ranking event, winning the 2002 welsh open, beating ken doherty 9–2 in the final, but was defeated 9–10 in the first round of the 2002 world championship by quinten hann. later in 2002, hunter won his third ranking event, the british open defeating ian mcculloch 9–4 in the final. as defending masters champion, hunter reached the semi-finals of the 2003 event, but lost 3–6 to mark williams.