2008 Welsh Open (snooker)

The 2008 Welsh Open was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 11 and 17 February 2008 in the Newport Centre in Newport, Wales.

Neil Robertson was the defending champion, but he lost his last 16 match against Ali Carter. Mark Selby won his first ranking title by defeating Ronnie O'Sullivan 9–8, after coming back from 5–8 down.

Notable happenings

 * Tian Pengfei won the last 3 frames to oust one of the Welsh favourites, Matthew Stevens 5–4.
 * David Roe led John Higgins 3–1 before losing 3–5.
 * Mark Williams won the last 3 frames to beat Marco Fu 5–4.
 * Ali Carter led Neil Robertson 4–0 but won only 5–3.
 * Ronnie O'Sullivan won the high break prize with a 143 in the last frame of his 6–3 semi-final victory over Shaun Murphy, surpassing an effort of 134 from Marcus Campbell.
 * Mark Selby had a highest break of 77 in the final compared to O'Sullivan's 135.

Prize fund
The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:

Winner: £35,000

Runner Up: £17,500

Semi Finalists: £8,750

Quarter Finalist: £6,500

Last 16: £4,275

Last 32: £2,750

Last 48: £1,725

Last 64: £1,325

Stage one highest break: £500

Stage two highest break: £2,000

Stage one maximum break: £1,000

Stage two maximum break: £20,000

Total: £225,500

Qualifying
Qualifying for the tournament took place at Pontin's in Prestatyn, Wales between 26 January and 28 January 2008.

Main stage centuries

 * 143, 135, 113, 108, 105, 101 – Ronnie O'Sullivan
 * 134 – Marcus Campbell
 * 133 – Ken Doherty
 * 132, 115, 108, 107 – Joe Perry
 * 130, 124 – Stephen Hendry
 * 129, 108, 105 – Shaun Murphy
 * 125, 114 – John Higgins
 * 123, 112 – Judd Trump
 * 123 – Stuart Bingham
 * 117, 101 – Marco Fu
 * 115 – Ding Junhui


 * 114, 101 – Mark Selby
 * 114, 100 – Mark Williams
 * 112 – Michael Judge
 * 109 – Stephen Maguire
 * 107 – Jamie Cope
 * 107 – Andrew Higginson
 * 105, 102 – Ali Carter
 * 103 – Dave Harold
 * 102 – Rod Lawler
 * 100 – Anthony Hamilton
 * 100 – Neil Robertson

Qualifying stage centuries

 * 134 – Stuart Pettman
 * 128 – Munraj Pal
 * 126 – Judd Trump
 * 123 – Tony Drago
 * 122 – Liang Wenbo
 * 113 – Issara Kachaiwong


 * 112 – Ian Preece
 * 109 – Tom Ford
 * 105 – David Roe
 * 104 – Jimmy Michie
 * 100 – Lee Walker