2002 World Snooker Championship

The 2002 Embassy World Snooker Championship professional ranking snooker tournament took place between 20 April and 6 May 2002 at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, England.

Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion, but he lost in the semi-finals 13–17 against Stephen Hendry and became another World Champion, who couldn't defend his first World title.

Peter Ebdon won his his first world title, by defeating seven-time World Champion Hendry by 18 frames to 17 in the final.

Prize fund

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Notable moments

• Steve Davis failed to qualify for the championship for the second year in a row. He lost to Robin Hull 8-10 at Newport.
• Stuart Bingham narrowly missed out on a 147 break in his first (and only) match, making it to the final pink.
• Matthew Stevens's 145 break was the second in the championship's history. Only Doug Mountjoy achieved that before in 1981 and the break at the time was the joint seventh highest of all time in the championship along with the six 147s.
• Stephen Hendry made a record ninth final at the Crucible (ahead of Steve Davis' eight).
• John Williams refereed his 10th World Final. He retired from the game soon afterwards.
• There were 68 centuries in the 2002 World Championship, a new record which lasted until 2009.^[2] The highest break of the tournament was 145, made by Matthew Stevens.^[1] Stephen Hendry's 16 centuries in the tournament was a new record, beating the 14 made by John Higgins in 1998.

Main draw

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References