2011 World Snooker Championship

The 2011 Betfred.com World Snooker Championship professional ranking snooker tournament took place between 16 April and 2 May 2011 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 74th edition of the event and was the last ranking event of the 2010/2011 snooker season. Neil Robertson was the defending champion, but lost 8–10 against Judd Trump in the first round.

Trump and John Higgins reached the final by defeating Ding Junhui 17–15 and Mark Williams 17–14 respectively. John Higgins won his fourth World Championship title defeating Judd Trump by 18–15 in the final.

Notable moments

First round

• In an effort of World Snooker to cut costs there was no separate prize money for a maximum break. In previous years the prize money for this achievement was £147,000.^[1]
• Débutantes at the Crucible were Andrew Pagett and Jimmy Robertson. This was also the first time that they qualified for the main draw of a ranking tournament.^[2] Neither of them reached the second round, as Pagett lost 7–10 against Jamie Cope and Robertson lost 1–10 against Mark Selby.^[3][4]
• Defending champion Neil Robertson lost 8–10 against Judd Trump.^[5] Robertson fell to the Crucible Curse, as he became another first time champion who couldn't defend his title.^[6]
• Barry Hawkins and Rory McLeod reached the second round of the World Championship for the first time in their career. Hawkins defeated Stephen Maguire 10–9 and McLeod defeated Ricky Walden 10–6.^[7][8]
• Ronnie O'Sullivan compiled his 100th Crucible century break in his first round match against Dominic Dale.^[9] O'Sullivan won the match 10–2.^[10] O'Sullivan attempted to withdraw from the World Championship one week before it started, but later, when asked for a written confirmation, he changed his decision.^[11]
• Five out of the sixteen seeded players lost their first round matches: Neil Robertson, Stephen Maguire, Ricky Walden, Marco Fu and Peter Ebdon. Fu lost 8–10 against Martin Gould and Ebdon lost 8–10 against Stuart Bingham.^[12][13]

Second round

• Mark Selby made three records in his 13–4 victory over Stephen Hendry.^[14] Selby became the first snooker player to compile six century breaks at a World Championship match.^[15][16] This was also a record for a best of 25 frame match and took the number of Selby's century breaks in the season to 54, a record previously held by Hendry.^[16][17]
• Ding Junhui came back from 9–12 to defeat Stuart Bingham 13–12. Ding qualified for the quarter-finals of the World Championship for the first time in his career.^[18]

Quarter-finals

• Mark Williams defeated Mark Allen 13–5 to reach the semi-finals of the World Championship for the first time since 2003, when he won his second world title.^[19]
• Judd Trump, rated an 80–1 outsider at the beginning of the tournament, defeated previous year's runner up Graeme Dott 13–5 to reach the semi-finals.^[20][21]
• Ding Junhui won his match 13–10 against Mark Selby to become the third player from Asia and the first from China to reach the semi-finals of the World Championship.^[22][23] As a result of Selby's exit from the tournament Williams became the new world number one after the event.^[23]

Semi-finals

• Judd Trump defeated Ding Junhui 17–15 in an absorbing match to become the second youngest player, after Stephen Hendry in 1990, to reach the final of the World Championship.^[24] Trump also reached his second consecutive ranking final after winning the China Open at the start of the month.^[25] In China, the second session of the match drew a peak audience of nearly 30 million viewers and averaging over 19 million, with the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association claiming it was the highest rated sports programme of 2011 up to that point;^[26] however, the Women's Tennis Association claimed that the women's singles final of the Australian Open held earlier in the year drew an audience of 60 million viewers on Chinese television.^[27][28]
• Mark Williams won the first session 5–3, and could maintain his advantage after the second session, which ended 4–4. John Higgins then won six of the next eight frames, to lead 13–11. Higgins won the match 17–14 to reach his third final in five years.^[29] During the 28th frame Higgins was heckled by a member of the audience, "How did you swallow that £300,000, John? ... You're a disgrace to snooker." in reference to the News of the World allegations last year, for which the heckler was later ejected from the venue.^[30][31]

Final

• Ted Lowe, BBC snooker commentator for many years and the deviser of long running snooker programme Pot Black, died at the age of 90 on the morning of 1 May. Before the start of the final that day, A minutes applause in honour of Lowe took place.^[32]
• The referee of the final was Jan Verhaas, who refereed his fourth World Championship final.^[33]
• After the first session was tied at four frames all, Trump won the second session 6–3 to take a 10–7 lead into the second day's play.^[34][35] Higgins took a 13–12 lead after the third session of the final, which he won 6–2.^[36] The score levelled at fourteen frames all, but Higgins won four of the last five frames to win the match 18–15. Higgins won his 24th ranking title and became only the fourth player to win the World Championship four times in the modern era after Ray Reardon, Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry.^[37]
• The highest break of the tournament was 138 made by both Mark King and Ding Junhui. This was the first time that the highest break of the tournament was lower than 140 since 1987, when it was 127 made by Steve Davis.^[38]

Prize fund

^[39][40]

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).^{[41][42][43][44]} The draw for the first round took place on 21 March 2011, one day after the Finals of the Players Tour Championship.^[2][45]

Preliminary qualifying

The preliminary qualifying rounds for the tournament took place on 3 March 2011 at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield. (WPBSA members not on The Tour.)^{[47][48][49][50]}

Round 1

Round 2

Qualifying

The qualifying rounds 1–4 for the tournament took place between 4 and 10 March 2011 at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield. The final round of qualifying took place between 12 and 13 March 2011 at the same venue.^{[47][48][49][50]}

Round 1

Rounds 2–5

Century breaks

Qualifying stages centuries

There were 73 century breaks in the qualifying stages of the World Championship.^[51]

TV stages centuries

There were 74 century breaks in the televised stages of the World Championship.^[51][52]

References

External links

• Official website
• Official blog at Betfred
• 2011 World Snooker Championship tournament at CueTracker.net
• World Snooker Championship's channel on YouTube
• World Championship Qualifiers 2011: Picture Perfect I at Pro Snooker Blog
• World Championship Qualifiers 2011: Picture Perfect II at Pro Snooker Blog
• World Championship Qualifiers 2011: Picture Perfect III at Pro Snooker Blog
• World Championship 2011: Picture Perfect I at Pro Snooker Blog
• World Championship 2011: Picture Perfect II at Pro Snooker Blog