2009 World Snooker Championship

The 2009 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2009 Betfred.com World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament. It was held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England, the 33rd consecutive year that the World Snooker Championship was staged at the venue. It took place between 18 April 2009 and 4 May 2009. The eighth and final ranking tournament of the 2008–09 snooker season, it was organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association and sponsored for the first time by online betting shop Betfred. The total prize fund was £1,111,000, of which the winner received £250,000.

The qualifying rounds took place from 26 February to 4 March and from 8 to 10 March 2009 at the English Institute of Sport. The 16 qualifiers and the top 16 players from the snooker world rankings reached the tournament's main stage at the Crucible. Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion, having defeated Ali Carter 18–8 in the 2008 final. He lost in the second round to Mark Allen.

John Higgins won his third world title by defeating Shaun Murphy 18–9 in the final. It was his 20th ranking title. A total of 83 century breaks were compiled during the event's main stage, the highest being a 147 made by Stephen Hendry. It was the highest number until 2015. Another 69 century breaks were made during the qualifying rounds.

Overview
Organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, the 2009 tournament was sponsored by online betting shop Betfred for the first time.

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


 * Winner: £250,000
 * Runner-up: £125,000
 * Semi-final: £52,000
 * Quarter-final: £24,050
 * Last 16: £16,000
 * Last 32: £12,000
 * Last 48: £8,200
 * Last 64: £4,600


 * Stage one highest break: £1,000
 * Stage two highest break: £10,000
 * Stage one maximum break: £5,000
 * Stage two maximum break: £147,000
 * Total: £1,111,000

First round
The first round was played between 18 and 23 April as the best of 19 held over two. The defending champion, Ronnie O'Sullivan, made breaks of 61, 140, 104, 73, 78, 94, 100 and 97 for a 105 victory against Stuart Bingham, although he rated his performance with a five out of ten. Six-time world champion Steve Davis qualified for the World Championship for a record-extending 29th time, but he was defeated 210 by Neil Robertson, who notched a century break of 135 in the process. Clive Everton, writing for The Guardian, hinted that this could be Davis's last appearance at the Crucible. "To me it's not about going out in style. I've gone past that. I'm going down the wall hanging on by my fingernails", said Davis. In a duel between two former world champions, Stephen Hendry won 107 over Mark Williams, who had to have his repaired in the middle of the match. Graeme Dott, winner in 2006, disposed of Barry Hawkins with a 108 result.

There were four debutants at the Crucible in this edition—Rory McLeod, Martin Gould, Andrew Higginson and Ricky Walden—and they were all defeated in the first round. McLeod, who became the first-ever black player to play at the Crucible, lost 510 to Mark King. Gould defeated the 2000 and 2005 runner-up, Matthew Stevens, in the qualifiers to earn a place at the Crucible, but he could not make it past Mark Allen, who knocked him out in the first round with a 106 result. Allen, semi-finalist of the 2008 Bahrain Championship during the season, produced a of 88 in the last frame. As he went into his first-round match against Higginson, Shaun Murphy, the 2005 winner, was threatened by his wife to be presented with the divorce papers at the Crucible. Higginson took the lead at 65 at the beginning of the second session, but Murphy prevailed with a 108 result despite the personal issues. Walden, champion of both the invitational 2008 Six-red Snooker International and the ranking 2008 Shanghai Masters earlier in the season, lost 610 to Mark Selby, runner-up in 2007. Selby made three centuries in the second session to seal victory.

The runner-up in the previous edition, Ali Carter, had won his first ranking event earlier in the season, the 2009 Welsh Open. In his first-round match, he beat Gerard Greene 105. Greene, having reached the Crucible on four occasions, had never made it past the first round of the event. Stephen Maguire compiled breaks of 98, 96, 101, 122, 79 and 127 for a 105 defeat of Jamie Burnett. A few months earlier, at the 2008 UK Championship, the game between both players, which also went Maguire's way, was investigated after there were allegations of match fixing, but neither of the players was charged. Marco Fu constructed three centuries en route to a 104 victory over Joe Swail. John Higgins, world champion in 1998 and 2007, fell 24 behind Michael Holt during the first session, but he only conceded one more frame as he completed the comeback for a 105 win. Ding Junhui led Liang Wenbo 74, but Liang won four frames on the trot to put himself ahead. Ding then took three consecutive frames, featuring a century break, to clinch victory with a 108 result. Only two out of the sixteen seeded players lost their first round matches. The 2002 world champion, Peter Ebdon, was defeated 510 by Nigel Bond, while Joe Perry lost 610 against Jamie Cope, who made good to advance into the second round of the World Championship for the first time in his career.

In September 2013 Stephen Lee was found guilty of conspiring to lose his first round match 4–10 against Ryan Day, for which as part of other offences Lee received a 12-year ban and was ordered to pay £40,000 in costs.

Second round
The second round of the event was played as the best of 25 frames, held over three sessions, between 23 and 27 April.


 * Hendry won his 1,000th frame at the Crucible during his match against Ding Junhui. In this very frame Hendry compiled a 140 break. In total, at that moment Hendry had played over 1,700 frames at the Crucible, more than any other player. Hendry went on to win the match 13–10 and qualified for the quarter-finals for a record 18th time. This was the second consecutive year that Hendry had knocked out Ding in the Last 16.
 * Mark Allen beat defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 13–11. Allen made his best appearance at the tournament, ultimately reaching the semi-finals. This would be the last time that O'Sullivan failed to reach the quarter-finals until 2016.
 * 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.
 * John Higgins beat Jamie Cope 13–12 having trailed 10–12.
 * Stephen Maguire and Mark King set a new record for the longest frame ever played at the Crucible at 74 minutes 58 seconds, breaking the previous record of 74 minutes 8 seconds set in the 2006 final between Peter Ebdon and Graeme Dott.
 * 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.

While the second round was being played, it was announced that the World Snooker Championship would continue to be played at the Crucible Theatre at least until 2014.

Quarter-finals
The quarter-finals of the event were played as the best of 25 frames, held over three sessions, between 28 and 29 April.


 * 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.
 * Neil Robertson beat Stephen Maguire - who had eliminated him in the second round the year before - 13–8. He became only the second player from Australia in 27 years (since Eddie Charlton) to play a semi-final at the Crucible.
 * 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.
 * Mark Allen and Neil Robertson both reached the first world championship semi-finals of their careers.

Semi-finals
The semi-finals were played as the best of 33 frames, held over four sessions, between 30 April and 2 May.

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

Final
The final was played as a best-of-35-frames, held over four sessions on 3 and 4 May, between Higgins and Murphy.


 * Michaela Tabb made history by becoming the first woman to referee a World Snooker Championship final.
 * This was the first final contested by two former world champions since 2003, when Mark Williams defeated Ken Doherty 18–16.
 * 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. After the third session, Higgins led 16–8, having won that session 5–3.
 * The second frame of the fourth session was Higgins's 1000th frame at the Crucible Theatre.
 * The fourth 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, and only the sixth player to have won more than two titles in the modern era (Ray Reardon, John Spencer, Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan being the others).
 * 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.

Main draw
Shown below are the results for each round. The numbers in parentheses beside some of the players are their seeding ranks (each championship has 16 seeds and 16 qualifiers). The draw for the televised stage of the World Snooker Championship was made on Wednesday, 11 March 2009 at 9:45a.m. GMT on Radio Sheffield.

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.)

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. The final round of qualifying took place between 8 and 10 March 2009 at the same venue.

Round 1

Rounds 2–5

Century breaks
This is complete list of century breaks scored in both the qualifying and the televised stages.

Televised stage centuries
There were 83 century breaks in the televised stage of the World Championship, a new record beating 2002's and 2007's 68; this record was surpassed in 2015.


 * 147, 140, 117, 114 – Stephen Hendry
 * 141, 131, 129, 128, 128, 128, 116, 114, 113, 107, 104 – John Higgins
 * 140, 107, 105, 104, 103 – Ronnie O'Sullivan
 * 137, 123, 115, 110, 109, 106, 104, 102, 101, 101 – Shaun Murphy
 * 134, 120, 106 – Ryan Day
 * 133, 127, 122, 115, 101 – Stephen Maguire
 * 130, 121, 112, 111 – Ding Junhui
 * 129, 124, 122, 111 – Marco Fu
 * 129, 119, 119, 115, 108, 108, 106, 103, 103, 103 – Mark Allen
 * 129, 105 – Barry Hawkins
 * 127, 124, 119, 118, 117, 117, 114, 104, 101, 101 – Mark Selby
 * 125, 124, 112, 105, 101 – Neil Robertson
 * 118, 103, 102 – Jamie Cope
 * 117 – Graeme Dott
 * 114 – Mark King
 * 113 – Peter Ebdon
 * 110 – Joe Perry
 * 102 – Michael Holt
 * 100 – Stuart Bingham
 * 100 – Ricky Walden

Qualifying stage centuries
There were 69 century breaks in the qualifying stage of the World Championship:


 * 145 – Mark Williams
 * 137, 100 – Judd Trump
 * 135, 102 – Andy Hicks
 * 134, 124, 120, 104 – Jimmy White
 * 134, 120, 100 – Liang Wenbo
 * 134, 103 – Matthew Selt
 * 131 – John Parrott
 * 129, 127, 106, 100 – Daniel Wells
 * 129 – Matthew Couch
 * 128, 103 – Ricky Walden
 * 128, 103 – Barry Hawkins
 * 127 – Michael Holt
 * 127 – Rory McLeod
 * 126 – David Morris
 * 125, 122, 103 – Ian McCulloch
 * 121, 105, 104 – Tom Ford
 * 119 – Dave Gilbert
 * 117 – Mark Davis
 * 117 – Jamie Burnett
 * 116 – Stefan Mazrocis
 * 116 – Ken Doherty
 * 115 – Anthony Hamilton
 * 114 – Nigel Bond
 * 113, 108, 105, 100 – Martin Gould
 * 112, 109 – Li Hang
 * 111 – Wayne Cooper
 * 110 – Stuart Pettman
 * 110 – Dominic Dale
 * 109, 101 – Lee Spick
 * 109 – Aditya Mehta
 * 105, 105 – Jin Long
 * 104 – Gerard Greene
 * 103 – Jamie Cope
 * 102 – Scott MacKenzie
 * 102 – Jamie Jones
 * 102 – Paul Davison
 * 100 – Liu Song