2009 World Snooker Championship

The 2009 World Snooker Championship (also known as the 2009 Betfred.com World Snooker Championship for sponsorship purposes) professional ranking snooker tournament took place between 18 April and 4 May at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. This was the first time that the World Snooker Championship had been sponsored by Betfred.^[1]

Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion, but he lost in the second round 11–13 against Mark Allen.

John Higgins won his third World title, by defeating Shaun Murphy 18–9 in the final.

Notable moments

First round

• Debutants at the Crucible were Rory McLeod, Martin Gould, Andrew Higginson and Ricky Walden. None of them went through to the second round.^[2][3][4]
• Rory McLeod became the first ever black player at the Crucible.^[5]
• Only two out of the sixteen seeded players lost their first round matches. Peter Ebdon lost 5–10 against Nigel Bond, while Joe Perry lost 6–10 against Jamie Cope.
• Steve Davis qualified for the World Championship for a record 29th time, but lost his first round match 2–10 against Neil Robertson.^[6]

Second round

• During his match with Ding Junhui, Stephen Hendry won his 1000th frame at Crucible Theatre. In this very frame Hendry compiled a 140 break. In total, at that moment Hendry had over 1700 frames played at Crucible, more than any other player. Hendry went on to win this match 13–10 and qualified for the Crucible quarter-finals for a record 18th time.^[7]
• Mark Allen beat defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 13–11. Allen made his best appearance at the tournament, ultimately reaching the semi-finals.^[8]
• Neil Robertson won four frames on the final black during the second session of his match with Ali Carter, and went on to win the match 13–8.^[9]
• John Higgins beat Jamie Cope 13–12 having trailed 10–12. Final frames were so tense, that two members of the audience fainted and required medical assistance.^[10]
• The match between Mark Selby and Graeme Dott saw a controversial decision by referee Alan Chamberlain. Dott was going in-off, but stopped the cue ball with his fist before it dropped into the pocket, believing that the in-off was obvious. Chamberlain called a foul and awarded four points to Selby. Convinced that he now had the cue ball in hand, as would be the norm after an in-off, Selby picked up the ball to place it inside the "D." However, Chamberlain then called a foul on him and awarded four points back to Dott. Chamberlain's reasoning was that since the cue ball had never left the bed of the table, Selby should have played the shot from where the cue ball finished. Both players and even members of the audience disputed Chamberlain's decision, but it remained unchanged.^[11]

Quarter-finals

• Stephen Hendry made the ninth 147 break of his career in the seventh frame of his match against Shaun Murphy. Hendry equalled Ronnie O'Sullivan's record for most 147s and became the second man to score a Crucible 147 more than once, having done it for the first time in 1995.^[12]
• Neil Robertson beat Stephen Maguire 13–8. He became only the second player from Australia in 27 years (since Eddie Charlton) to play a semi-final at the Crucible.^[13]
• John Higgins advanced to the semi-finals against Mark Selby by winning his second consecutive match of the tournament in the final frame, again coming from behind before the last frames, this time 11–12. The final frame required two re-racks.^[14]
• Mark Allen and Neil Robertson both reached the first world championship semi-finals of their careers.

Semi-finals

Both semi-finals featured impressive comebacks from the eventual losers. Mark Allen came back from a 3–13 deficit against John Higgins to 12–15 before losing the match 13–17.^[15] In a similar manner, Neil Robertson brought a 7–14 deficit back to 14–14 in his match against Shaun Murphy, but lost the final three frames.^[16]

Final

• Michaela Tabb made history by becoming the first woman to referee a World Snooker Championship final.^[17][18]
• This was the first final since 2003 (Williams 18–16 Doherty) contested by two former world champions.^[19]
• After the first session ended all-square at 4–4, John Higgins opened up an 11–5 lead over Shaun Murphy, winning the second session 7–1.^[20] After the third session, Higgins led 16–8, having won that session 5–3.^[21]
• The second frame of the fourth session was Higgins's 1000th frame in the Crucible Theatre.^[22]

• Thefourth and final session lasted only three frames before John Higgins defeated Shaun Murphy 18–9. In doing so, Higgins became only the ninth player to lift the trophy more than twice^[23] and only the sixth player to have won more than two titles in modern times (Ray Reardon, John Spencer, Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan being the others).^[24]

• By winning the title two weeks before his 34th birthday, Higgins became the oldest World Snooker Champion since 36-year-old Dennis Taylor in 1985.^[25]

Prize fund

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 draw for the televised stages of the World Snooker Championship was made on Wednesday, March 11 at 9.45 am.^{[27][28][29][30][31]}

Preliminary qualifying

The preliminary qualifying rounds for the tournament took place on 25 February 2009 at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. (World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association members not on The Tour.)^[32][33]

Round 1

Round 2

Qualifying

The qualifying rounds 1–4 for the tournament took place between 26 February and 4 March 2009 at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.^[33][34] The final round of qualifying took place between 8 and 10 March 2009 at the same venue.^[32][35][36]

Round 1

Rounds 2–5

Century breaks

This is complete list of century breaks scored in both the qualifying stages and the competition proper.^[37]

Qualifying stages centuries

Television stages centuries

There were 83 centuries in the 2009 World Championship, a new record beating 2002's and 2007's 68.^[38]

References

External links

• Photos at the BBC
• Youtube: Video of Hendry's 147