2011 World Snooker Championship

The World Snooker Championship is an annual cue sport tournament and the official world championship of the game of snooker. Invented in the late 19th century by British Army soldiers stationed in India, the sport was popular in Great Britain. In modern times it has been played worldwide, especially in East and Southeast Asian nations such as China, Hong Kong and Thailand. In the 2011 tournament, 32 professional players competed in one-on-one snooker matches played over several , using a single-elimination tournament format. The 32 players were selected for the event using the snooker world rankings and a pre-tournament qualification competition. In 1927, the first world championship was won by Joe Davis. The event's final took place in Camkin's Hall, Birmingham, England. Since 1977, the event has been held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. The event was organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Australian Neil Robertson was the defending champion, having defeated Graeme Dott 18–13 in the previous year's final. The event was sponsored by sports betting company Betfred. It featured a 32-player main draw that was held at the Crucible Theatre, as well as a qualifying draw that was played at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield from 3 to 13 March. This was the 35th consecutive year that the tournament had been staged at the Crucible. The main stages of the event were broadcast by the BBC in the United Kingdom. The top 16 players in the latest world rankings automatically qualified for the main draw as seeded players. Robertson was seeded first overall as the defending champion, and the remaining 15 seeds were allocated based on the latest world rankings. All 16 non-seeded spots in the main draw were filled with players from the qualifying rounds. The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below: • Winner: £250,000 • Runner-up: £125,000 • Semi-final: £52,000 • Quarter-final: £24,050 • Last 16: £16,000 • Last 32: £12,000 • Last 48: £8,200 • Last 64: £4,600 • Stage one highest break: £1,000 • Stage two highest break: £10,000 • Total: £1,111,000 ==Tournament summary==

Opening rounds (first round—quarter-finals) (pictured in 2010), defeated the defending champion Neil Robertson 10–8 in the opening round The first round was played from 16 to 21 April as the best of 19 frames held over two . Defending champion Neil Robertson led Judd Trump 7–6, but lost the match 8–10. Trump, having recently won the 2011 China Open, commented "I'm on a high at the moment and I don't want it to finish. I want to make winning a habit". Both players lost their opening round match, as Pagett lost 7–10 against Jamie Cope and Jimmy Robertson lost 1–10 against Mark Selby. Both Barry Hawkins and Rory McLeod reached the second round of the World Championship for the first time. Hawkins defeated Stephen Maguire on a 10–9 and McLeod defeated Ricky Walden 10–6. Ronnie O'Sullivan attempted to withdraw from the event one week before it started, but later, when asked for a written confirmation, changed his decision. He compiled his 100th century break at the venue in his first round match against Dominic Dale, as he won 10–2. Previous winner Graeme Dott led Mark King 7–3, but was reduced to a 7–6 lead. Dott won three of the next four frames to complete a 10–7 victory. Seven-time winner Hendry defeated Joe Perry 10–9 on a deciding frame, but hinted that he might retire after the event. In total, five out of the sixteen seeded players lost their first round matches: Neil Robertson, Maguire, Walden, Marco Fu and Peter Ebdon. Fu lost 8–10 against Martin Gould and Ebdon lost 8–10 against Stuart Bingham. The second round was played as the best of 25 frames, held over three sessions. This was the first time six century breaks had been made in a match at the event, and also for a best of 25 frames match at any event. Trump defeated Gould 13–6, with his opponent considering him to be a favourite to win the event, and Trump commenting "I feel I've got the game to go out and win it". Dott and Carter were tied at 11–11 in their second round match, before Dott won the next two frames to complete a 13–11 victory. Eleventh seed Mark Allen also went to a deciding frame, as he defeated Hawkins 13–12. The quarter-finals were played as the best of 25 frames. Trump, rated an 80–1 outsider at the beginning of the tournament, defeated previous year's runner up Dott 13–5 to reach the semi-finals. Ding won his match 13–10 against Selby to become the third Asian player to reach the semi-finals of the world championship, following James Wattana and Fu. As a result of Selby's exit, Williams became the new world number one after the event. Later rounds (semi-finals—final) The semi-finals were played as the best of 33 frames, held over four sessions. Trump defeated Ding 17–15 to become the second youngest player (after Hendry in 1990) to reach the final of the event. Trump also reached his second consecutive ranking final after winning the China Open at the start of the month. In China, the second session of the match drew a peak audience of nearly 30 million viewers and averaging over 19 million, with the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association claiming it was the highest rated sports programme of 2011 up to that point; however, the Women's Tennis Association claimed that the women's singles final of the Australian Open held earlier in the year drew an audience of 60 million viewers on Chinese television. Williams led Higgins 5–3 after the first session, and maintained his lead after the second session, which ended 9–7. Higgins, however, then won six of the next eight frames, to lead 13–11 after the third session. Higgins won the match 17–14 to reach his third final in five years. During the 28th frame Higgins was heckled by a member of the audience, "How did you swallow that £300,000, John? ... You're a disgrace to snooker." in reference to the News of the World allegations the previous year of match fixing, for which the heckler was later ejected from the venue. Higgins had only returned from a six-month suspension due to the incident in November. Ted Lowe, BBC commentator for many years and the deviser of the long-running snooker programme Pot Black, died at the age of 90 on the morning of 1 May. Before the start of the final that day, a minute's applause in honour of Lowe took place. After the first session was tied at four frames all, Trump won the second session 6–3 to take a 10–7 lead into the second day's play. Higgins took a 13–12 lead after the third session of the final, which he won 6–2. Trump levelled the match at 14–14, before Higgins won four of the last five frames to win the match 18–15. Higgins complemented Trump "He was the better player. He was playing a brand of snooker I have never seen before in my life." The highest of the tournament was 138 made by both Ding and King. This was the first time since 1987 that the highest break of the tournament was lower than 140, when it was 127 made by Davis. ==Main draw==

Below is the full draw for the main stage of the tournament. The numbers in brackets denote player seeding, whilst those in bold denote match winners. The draw for the first round took place on 21 March 2011, one day after the Players Tour Championship Finals. ==Qualifying==

Preliminary qualifying The preliminary qualifying rounds for the tournament took place on 3 March 2011 at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield. Round 1 Round 2 Main qualifying The qualifying rounds 1–4 for the tournament took place between 4 and 10 March 2011 at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield. The final round of qualifying took place between 12 and 13 March 2011 at the same venue. Round 1 Rounds 2–5 ==Century breaks ==

Televised stage centuries There were 74 century breaks in the televised stage of the World Championship. • 138, 128, 121, 119, 117, 114, 102 Ding Junhui • 138 Mark King • 137, 125, 115, 113, 109, 106, 105, 104, 103 Mark Williams • 135, 132, 131, 124, 123, 121, 120, 113, 101 John Higgins • 134, 101 Stuart Bingham • 133, 117, 114 Stephen Hendry • 129, 127, 125, 124, 117, 108, 107, 100 Mark Selby • 128, 119, 116, 115, 113, 105, 100 Ronnie O'Sullivan • 127, 100 Neil Robertson • 123, 122, 110, 108, 105, 104, 104, 103, 102, 102 Judd Trump • 122, 120, 111, 102 Graeme Dott • 117 Barry Hawkins • 115, 112, 104 Ali Carter • 115, 100 Marco Fu • 114, 103, 102, 100 Mark Allen • 101 Stephen Lee • 100 Shaun Murphy Qualifying stage centuries There were 73 century breaks in the qualifying stage of the World Championship. • 141 James Wattana • 135, 108, 106, 100 Xiao Guodong • 133, 125, 124, 120, 103 Sam Baird • 132, 129, 118, 118, 115 Jamie Burnett • 130, 114 Kurt Maflin • 130 Rory McLeod • 129 David Gilbert • 129 Matthew Stevens • 127 Anthony McGill • 127 Liu Chuang • 127, 122 Ryan Day • 126, 114 Stuart Bingham • 124 Joe Swail • 124 Gerard Greene • 123, 113 Michael Holt • 123, 101, 100 Matthew Selt • 122 Ian McCulloch • 121 Jack Lisowski • 119, 115, 100, 100 Patrick Wallace • 117 Liu Song • 116 Andy Hicks • 113, 112, 107 Kuldesh Johal • 113, 112 David Gray • 112 Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon • 112 James McBain • 112 Tom Ford • 111 Jamie O'Neill • 111 Barry Pinches • 111 Jimmy Robertson • 109, 103 Paul Davison • 109, 102 Ken Doherty • 108 Stephen Rowlings • 108, 101 Dominic Dale • 107, 105 Michael White • 106, 100 Fergal O'Brien • 105, 101 Steve Davis • 105 Stephen Lee • 103 Anthony Hamilton • 102 Kyren Wilson • 101 Zhang Anda • 101 Mike Dunn • 101 Liang Wenbo • 100 Judd Trump ==Notes==