2007 World Snooker Championship

The 2007 888.com World Snooker Championship professional ranking snooker tournament began on 21 April and ran until 7 May 2007 (with the final continuing into the early hours of 8 May) at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield.

Graeme Dott was the defending champion, but lost in the first round against 7–10 against Ian McCulloch and became another World Champion, who couldn't defend his first World title.

John Higgins won his second World title, by defeating Mark Selby 18–13 in the final.

Notable moments

• Before the tournament began Ronnie O'Sullivan alleged that the WPBSA draw had been fixed, "to stitch me up",^[1] after having been drawn in the first round against Ding Junhui, considered by bookmakers to be among the favourites for the title,^[1][2] and noting that he had drawn European Open and UK Champion Stephen Maguire in both 2004 and 2005.^[1] O'Sullivan later withdrew the accusation,^[3] and made no formal complaint to the WPBSA (who maintain that the draw was genuine).^[1]
• Defending champion Graeme Dott was knocked out in the first round by Ian McCulloch by 10 frames to 7.
• In the first round battle of the champions, John Parrott beat Steve Davis by just 10 frames to 9.^[4]
• 2006 finalist Peter Ebdon lost in the second round for the first time ever, against eventual 2007 finalist Mark Selby.
• Shaun Murphy came back from 7–12 down to win his quarter-final match against Matthew Stevens, a feat never before accomplished in the history of professional, best-of-25-frame snooker.^[5]
• During his semi-final match, John Higgins compiled the Crucible's 1000th century break.
• When taking charge of the semi final between Shaun Murphy and Mark Selby, Michaela Tabb became the first woman to referee a match at the Crucible with the single table set-up. In 2009, she has refereed the final.
• The final had the latest finish in history, with the conclusion of the 31st and final frame coming at 00:54 BST, just two minutes later than in 2006.^[6]
• John Higgins' second title came 9 years after his first, the longest gap between wins since his namesake Alex Higgins. It is the longest gap between wins at The Crucible.

Prize fund

^[7]

Main draw

Shown below are the results for each round, the numbers in brackets beside some of the players are their seeding ranks (each championship has 16 seeds and 16 qualifiers). The first round draw was done by presenters Bill Turnbull and Sian Williams of BBC Breakfast on March 19 and it was announced on Breakfast at 7.30 the next day.^{[7][8][9][10]}

Preliminary qualifying

The preliminary qualifying rounds for the tournament took place in Pontin's Prestatyn, Wales.^[7][11]

Round 1

Round 2

Qualifying

Qualification for the 2007 World Snooker Championship, was held between 23 February to 2 March 2007 at Pontin's, Prestatyn, Wales. The final qualifying round took place at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield between the 12–15 March 2007.^[7][11]

Round 1

Round 2–5

Century breaks

^[7]

Qualifying stages centuries

TV stages centuries

There were 68 centuries scored in the TV Stages of the 2007 Championship, which was joint equal highest in the history of the tournament (with the tournament held in 2002) until 2009.^[12]

References