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2019 Tour Championship

The 2019 Tour Championship was a professional snooker ranking tournament that took place from 19 to 24 March 2019 at Venue Cymru in Llandudno, Wales. Organised by World Snooker, it was the first edition of the Tour Championship and the third and final event of the inaugural Coral Cup. It was the eighteenth ranking event of the 2018–19 snooker season.

Format
The 2019 Tour Championship was the third and final event in the 2019 Coral Cup series, first introduced in the 2018/2019 season, after the World Grand Prix and the Players Championship. The players qualified for the series by virtue of their placement on the one-year ranking list, rather than by world ranking. The event featured the top eight players from the one-year ranking list taking part in a single-elimination tournament. The Tour Championship was played from 19 to 24 March 2019 in Llandudno, Wales and organised by World Snooker. The Tour Championship was the first event since the 2010 UK Championship (and other than the World Championship) in which every match was played over multiple sessions, with two in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, and three sessions in the final. The best-of-25-frames final, held on 23 and 24 March, was the first non-World Championship match of this length or longer since the 1992 UK Championship final. The tournament was primarily broadcast by ITV4 in the United Kingdom. It also aired on Sky Sport in New Zealand, NowTV in Hong Kong, and Superstars Online in China. Eurosport did not broadcast the event, despite covering all but one of the other snooker tournaments this season. The event was sponsored by sports betting company Coral. Prize fund The tournament was the first Tour Championship in this format. The event had a prize fund of £375,000 with the winner receiving £150,000. The breakdown of prize money for the event was as below: • Winner: £150,000 • Runner-up: £60,000 • Semi-final: £40,000 • Quarter-final: £20,000 • Highest break: £5,000 • Total: £375,000 The "rolling 147 prize" for a maximum break stood at £15,000, but went unclaimed. Qualification Qualification for the event was for the top eight players on the one-year ranking list up to and including the 2019 Gibraltar Open. ==Summary==
Summary
First round overcame a three-frame deficit to defeat reigning world champion Mark Williams 9–8.|alt=Judd Trump after playing a shot. The first round was held from 19 to 20 March, all matches being played over two sessions as best-of-17- matches. Neil Robertson played Mark Selby in the opening match of the tournament. Robertson progressed into an early lead, taking the first two frames with breaks of 88 and 110. Robertson won the first three frames of the second session, to reduce his deficit to 5–6. Selby missed the in frame 12, allowing Robertson to tie the match at 6–6. Robertson also took frame 13 to lead the match for the first time since frame two. Selby won frame 14 despite requiring three , and also frame 15, to lead the match again at 8–7, before Robertson took the match to a decider with a break of 135. The top four seeds all won their first round matches to progress to the semi-finals. Trump took the first frame in the opening session of the match with a break of 54, before O'Sullivan tied the score at one frame apiece. Trump won frames three and four to lead 3–1 at the interval. In the decider, Trump secured the first chance, but his break ended at 50 points. Despite a waistcoat foul on his previous shot, O'Sullivan was given another opportunity to clear the table, but he missed the final red near the cushion rail, allowing his opponent back on the table. Trump missed the match-winning yellow close to the cushion into the green pocket, Robertson then won the next five frames, which included back-to-back centuries in frames four and five and a of 69 in frame seven. Allen then captured the final frame of the session to trail 3–5. Robertson then won the next three frames with a combined 303 points without reply. In frame 16, Allen scored enough points to take the frame to the "snookers required" stage, only to snooker himself on the final red behind the green ball, allowing Robertson to clear the table and win the match 10–6. Final won the event, defeating Neil Robertson in the final 13–11 to win his third championship of the season.|alt=Ronnie O'Sullivan chalking his cue stick. The final was played on 23 and 24 March, spread over three sessions in a best-of-25-frames match. The two contestants in the final were Ronnie O'Sullivan and Neil Robertson, who had also met in the final of the Players Championship two weeks prior. The winner of the match would also win the Coral Cup, awarded to the player who accumulates the most prize money over the three Coral tournaments. The opening session of the match was played on the evening of 23 March. Robertson won the first two frames, and O'Sullivan the next two with breaks of 74 and 97 to tie the match 2–2 at the mid-session interval. O'Sullivan won the next three frames after the interval, with breaks of 71 and 67, to lead 5–2. Robertson made a frame-winning 48 break in the final frame of the session to trail by two frames overnight. The second and third sessions were both played on 24 March. O'Sullivan extended his lead in frame nine with a century break, but then missed a frame ball pink in the next, allowing Robertson to win the frame to trail by two again. Robertson made a break of 106 to win frame 11, before O'Sullivan restored his two frame advantage, winning frame 12, to lead 7–5, and later 8–6. Robertson won both of the remaining two frames of the session to tie the match 8–8 heading into the final session. O'Sullivan won the first frame of the evening session (frame 17) with a break of 129, before Robertson levelled the score at 9–9. They also shared the next two frames to tie the match at 10–10 leading into the interval. O'Sullivan pulled ahead to 12–10 in the next two frames. In frame 23, Robertson accidentally knocked a red into the pocket whilst opening the pack, but O'Sullivan scored only 16 points from the opportunity, which allowed Robertson to win the frame to trail 11–12. Robertson also had the first chance in frame 24, making a break of 28, before missing a black ball from the allowing O'Sullivan to win the frame and tournament with a break of 89. This was the 36th ranking championship victory of O'Sullivan's career, equalling the record set by Stephen Hendry between 1987 and 2005. O'Sullivan reached world number one on winning the event, replacing Mark Selby who had held the position since February 2015. At the age of 43, O'Sullivan became the oldest snooker world number one since Ray Reardon in 1983. He also picked up the Coral Cup, having accrued a total of £280,000 over the three Coral events (and winning two). The closest challenger for the award, Judd Trump, had earned more than £100,000 less prize money over the same events. ==Main draw==
Coral Cup
The 2018/2019 Snooker season introduced the Coral Cup series, featuring three events: the World Grand Prix, the Players Championship, and the Tour Championship. For all three events, qualification was based on players' rankings on the one-year ranking list. Ronnie O'Sullivan won the inaugural "Coral Cup", earning the highest amount of prize money overall across the series, however unlike later seasons he did not earn a monetary bonus. The top ten players with the most prize money won in total over the three events is shown below: ==Century breaks==
Century breaks
The event featured a total of 22 century breaks. The highest break of 135 was compiled by Neil Robertson in his opening round match against Mark Selby. • 135, 110, 106, 106, 106, 101 Neil Robertson • 134, 130, 129, 121, 113, 111, 100, 100 Ronnie O'Sullivan • 123, 117, 103 Mark Selby • 123, 105, 103 Mark Allen • 103 Mark Williams • 100 Judd Trump ==Notes==
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