2015 World Snooker Championship

in Sheffield, England (image taken during event) The World Snooker Championship is an annual cue sport tournament and the official professional world championship of the game of snooker. Founded in the late 19th century by British Army soldiers stationed in India, the sport was originally played in the United Kingdom. In modern times, it has been played worldwide, especially in East and Southeast Asia nations such as China, Hong Kong and Thailand. The world championship sees professional players compete in one-on-one snooker matches in a single-elimination format, each played over several . The player participating in the championship are selected through a mix of the snooker world rankings, and a pre-tournament qualification round. The first world championship in 1927 was won by Joe Davis, the final being held in Camkin's Hall, Birmingham, England. Since 1977, the event has been held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan are the event's most successful participants in the modern era, having both won the championship seven times. Englishman Mark Selby had won the previous year's championship by defeating fellow countryman Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final 18–14. The winner of the 2015 event earned prize money of £300,000, from a total pool of £1,364,000. Format The 2015 World Snooker Championship was held from 18 April to 4 May 2015 in Sheffield, England. It featured a 32-player main draw that took place at the Crucible Theatre, as well as a 128-player qualifying draw that was played at the 8 and 15 April 2015 at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, finishing three days before the start of the main tournament. These invited players included the women's world champion, the European junior champion, and all four semi-finalists at the amateur championship. As with the main draw, half of the participants in the qualifying draw were seeded players; those ranked from 17th to 80th were allocated one of 64 seeds in order of their ranking, and the other participants were placed randomly into the draw. To reach the main draw at the Crucible, players needed to win three best-of-19-frames matches. --> Prize fund The prize fund of the event was raised to £1,364,000 from the previous year's £1,214,000. The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below: • Winner: £300,000 • Runner-up: £125,000 • Semi-final: £60,000 • Quarter-final: £30,000 • Last 16: £20,000 • Last 32: £12,000 • Last 48: £9,000 • Last 80: £6,000 • Non-televised highest break: £1,000 • Televised highest break: £10,000 • Total: £1,364,000 Participant summary The event featured 144 participants, 128 competing in qualifying alongside 16 invited players. The top 16 seeds automatically qualified for the main draw based on the snooker world rankings before the tournament. Ali Carter was seeded 13, despite being ranked 31, because his seeding had been frozen while he underwent treatment for cancer. This meant that Michael White, ranked 16, had to play in the qualifying tournament. For the first time, players ranked 17 to 32 had to win three qualifying matches, rather than one. Ten former world champions competed in the tournament. Peter Ebdon, Steve Davis, and Ken Doherty lost in the qualifying rounds, but Graeme Dott qualified for the main stages. Six other former champions (John Higgins, Shaun Murphy, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Neil Robertson, Mark Selby, and Mark Williams) automatically qualified by virtue of their top 16 rankings. Ten-time women's world champion Reanne Evans attempted to become the first woman to reach the televised stages of the World Championship, but she lost 8–10 to Doherty in the first qualifying round. ==Summary==

First round was eliminated in the second round.|upright The first round was played as the best of 19 frames held over two between 18 and 23 April. First-round debutants at the championship were England's Craig Steadman, and Stuart Carrington, Scotland's Anthony McGill, and Norway's Kurt Maflin. McGill and Carrington had both played at the Crucible before, in the Junior Pot Black in 2006. Mark Selby led 6–3 and 8–4 against Maflin, but trailed after his opponent won five frames in a row. Selby recovered from 8–9 down to clinch a 10–9 win. In his match against Steadman, O'Sullivan risked a sanction for removing a pair of uncomfortable shoes and playing briefly in his socks, before borrowing a replacement pair of shoes from tournament director Mike Ganley. Carter, who had missed the first five months of the season after extensive treatment for cancer, won his match 10–5 against Alan McManus. Higgins recorded seven breaks over 50 in a 10–5 victory over Robert Milkins. McGill led Maguire 9–5, and took the with a break of 122 after Maguire had won four successive frames to level at 9–9. Marco Fu and Jimmy Robertson were tied at 5–5, Fu winning five of the next six frames for a 10–6 win. Mark Davis built a 4–0 lead against Ding Junhui, but won only three out of the next thirteen, and lost 7–10. Mark Allen, trailing 1–3, took the next nine frames to progress 10–3 at the expense of Day. Hawkins led Matthew Selt 7–2 and 9–4, but had to win the match in a deciding frame as Selt won the next five frames. Stevens, who had been defeated in the 2000 final by Williams, eliminated Williams at the 2015 event, completing a 10–2 victory. Ding lost five of the first six frame in his match against Higgins but won the match 13–9 to reach only his third quarter-final in nine years. Higgins praised Ding's positional play after the match, crediting it as the best since Steve Davis. Allen commented that his opponent "froze [him] out", and Hawkins suggested the win would strengthen him going forward. Robertson compiled a break of 145 in the last frame of his match against Carter. Bingham made the joint highest break of the tournament in the quarter-final match against O'Sullivan. He reached the first career semi-final after completing 13–9 victory over tournament favourite O'Sullivan, who had beaten Bingham 13–4 at the same stage of the tournament two years before. A controversial incident occurred in the fifth frame of the match, when O'Sullivan placed his chalk on the table and used it to line up a shot. Referee Terry Camilleri did not penalise O'Sullivan, even though the rules of snooker call for a seven-point foul if a player uses an object to measure gaps or distances. The referee's handling of the incident was questioned from the commentary box by former world champion Doherty and on Twitter by former tour referee Michaela Tabb. Bingham commented that he had been in tears after the match, calling it "unbelievable". Hawkins and Robertson produced four century breaks each to equal the record of eight centuries in one match, a new record for a 25-frame match. Their encounter also included the longest frame in the 2015 tournament to that point, at 70 minutes and 22 seconds. Semi-finals The semi-finals were played between 30 April and 2 May, as the best of 33 frames, held over four sessions. Murphy took a 6–2 lead over Hawkins in the first session and extended it to 13–3 after the second. Hawkins won the third session, taking five out of eight frames, but trailed 16–8. Murphy wrapped up a 17–9 victory in the final session to reach the third world championship final of his career, after 2005 and 2009. Murphy commented that he was "blown away" at reaching the final of the event again. In a much closer encounter, Bingham led Trump 5–3 after the first session, 9–7 after the second, and 13–11 after the third. From 14 to 16 down, Trump produced two consecutive century breaks to force a deciding frame. Trump had the first chance in the final frame, but suffered a allowing Bingham to prevail and defeat Trump 17–16 and reach his first World Championship final. Bingham commented ""It's unbelievable, I cant believe I'm in the world final" It was the third appearance in the final for Murphy, who won the title in 2005 with an 18–16 victory over Stevens and was runner-up in 2009 when he lost 9–18 to Higgins. The final was refereed for the first time by Olivier Marteel, from Koksijde in West Flanders, Belgium, who had previously officiated on the semi-final the previous year. He was also the first Belgian to take charge of a World Championship final, and the second referee from continental Europe to do so, after Jan Verhaas. Bingham's break of 123 in the 14th frame was the 84th century break compiled at the Crucible in 2015, breaking the previous record of 83 centuries set in 2009. In the third session, Bingham won six of the eight frames to move into a 14–11 lead. In the 20th frame, Bingham attempted a maximum break, potting 14 reds and 14 blacks before missing the final red. Although Murphy won four of the first five frames in the final session to draw level at 15–15, Bingham won the 64-minute 31st frame to go 16–15 in front, and then added two more frames for an 18–15 victory and his first world title. Bingham had odds of 50–1 to win before the tournament. The achievement made him the oldest player to win the title since Reardon in 1978. He was the third oldest winner in Crucible history after Reardon in 1978 and John Spencer who was 41 in 1977. ==Main draw==

Shown below are the results for each round. Numbers in brackets denote player seedings; players in bold denote match winners. The draw for the first round took place at Hallamshire Golf Club on 16 April 2015, one day after the end of the last qualifying round. ==Qualifying==

The three qualifying rounds took place between 8 and 15 April 2015 at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield, England. All matches were played as the best-of-19 frames. ==Century breaks==

Televised stage centuries There were 86 century breaks in the televised stage of the World Championship. For every century break made during the 17-day championship in Sheffield, the title sponsor, Betfred, pledged to donate £200 to World Snooker's official charity, the Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice; in line with the sponsor's declaration, the donation was rounded up to £25,000 as at least 70 centuries were achieved. Neil Robertson and Bingham each compiled a break of 145, the highest breaks achieved in the tournament. Three players, Tom Ford, Craig Steadman and David Morris each made the highest break of qualifying, 140. • 140, 136, 123, 104 Tom Ford • 140, 116 Craig Steadman • 140 David Morris • 139, 138, 126, 125, 112 Robin Hull • 139, 114 Graeme Dott • 137, 134, 132 Zhang Anda • 135 Tony Drago • 134, 134 Andrew Higginson • 134, 109 Sam Baird • 134 Scott Donaldson • 133, 100 Yu Delu • 132, 111 Mark Davis • 131, 123 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh • 131, 106 Mark King • 131 Xiao Guodong • 130, 123 David Gilbert • 129, 120 Dechawat Poomjaeng • 129 Ben Woollaston • 127 Anthony McGill • 125, 110, 106, 102 Fergal O'Brien • 122, 108, 100 Kurt Maflin • 122 Tian Pengfei • 122 Jamie Jones • 120, 118 Adam Duffy • 120, 110 Jack Lisowski • 117 Igor Figueiredo • 116 Michael White • 116 Jamie Burnett • 115, 113, 110, 103 Liang Wenbo • 115 Ryan Day • 115 Liam Highfield • 113, 100 Rod Lawler • 113 Li Hang • 113 Joe Swail • 111, 103 Jimmy Robertson • 110 Alan McManus • 108 Zhou Yuelong • 108 Noppon Saengkham • 107 Chris Wakelin • 106 Peter Lines • 106 Jimmy White • 105, 104 Robert Milkins • 105 Ashley Carty • 105 Stuart Carrington • 101 Michael Leslie • 101 Michael Holt • 101 Matthew Selt • 101 Robbie Williams • 100 Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon • 100 Luca Brecel • 100 Darryl Hill ==Notes==