The 1994 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 1994 Embassy World Snooker Championship) was a professional

ranking A ranking is a relationship between a set of items, often recorded in a list, such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than", or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak ...

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets: one at each corner and ...

tournament that took place between 16 April and 2 May 1994 at the

Crucible Theatre The Crucible Theatre, or simply The Crucible, is a theatre in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which opened in 1971. Its name refers to crucible steel, which was developed in Sheffield in 1740 and drove the industrialisation of the city. ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

, England.

Stephen Hendry Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish retired professional snooker player and a current Sports commentator, commentator and pundit. One of the most successful players in snooker history, he turned professional in 1985, ag ...

won his fourth world title by defeating

Jimmy White James Warren White (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player who has won ten ranking events. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his swift and attacking style of play, White has reached six World Snooker Championship finals ...

18–17 in the final. The tournament was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer

Embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a Sovereign state, state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase ...

Overview

* Two-time world champion

Alex Higgins Alexander Gordon Higgins (18 March 1949 – 24 July 2010) was a Northern Irish professional snooker player and a two-time world champion who is remembered as one of the most iconic figures in the sport's history. Nicknamed "Hurricane Higgi ...

qualified for the championship for the last time, losing 6–10 in the first round to

Ken Doherty Kenneth Joseph Doherty (born 17 September 1969) is an Irish professional snooker player who also works as a commentator and pundit on televised snooker broadcasts. From Ranelagh in Dublin, he is the sport's only World Snooker Championship, wor ...

. *

Cliff Thorburn Clifford Charles Devlin Thorburn (born 16 January 1948) is a Canadian retired professional snooker player. Nicknamed "The Grinder" because of his slow, determined style of play, he won the World Snooker Championship in 1980, defeating Alex Hi ...

, another former champion making his final World Championship appearance, lost 9–10 in the first round to

Nigel Bond Nigel Bond (born 15 November 1965) is an English retired professional snooker player. Bond competed on the main tour from 1989 to 2022, and was ranked within the world's top 16 players between 1992 and 1999, peaking at 5th for the 1996–97 ...

after leading 9–2. * 18-year-old

Ronnie O'Sullivan Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan (born 5 December 1975) is an English professional snooker player. Widely recognised as one of the most talented and accomplished players in snooker history, he has won the World Snooker Championship seven times, a m ...

knocked out

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

champion

Dennis Taylor Dennis Taylor (born 19 January 1949) is a Northern Irish retired professional snooker player and current commentator. He turned professional in 1972 and won the 1985 World Snooker Championship, in which he lost the first eight frames of 1985 W ...

, who was also making his final appearance at the World Championship. O'Sullivan won their first-round match 10–6, his first victory at the Crucible after losing in the first round on his debut the previous year. *

won his third consecutive world title and his fourth in five years. This achievement was all the more remarkable because he played every match after the first round with a broken elbow. * This was

's fifth consecutive final appearance, his fourth against Hendry, and his sixth overall. The match went to a deciding frame; White had a great chance to win his first World title when leading 37–24 and only needing a handful of pots to win the title but missed a off the , and Hendry to clinch the title. This was White's last appearance in a World Championship final and the closest he ever came to winning the tournament. * Earlier in the tournament, Hendry had sealed his position as world number one with a 16–9 semi-final victory over

Steve Davis Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a Sports commentator, commentator, DJ, electronic musician and author. He dominated professional snooker in the 1980s, when he reached eight ...

. This was Davis' eleventh and last appearance in a World Championship semi-final.

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below: *Winner: £180,000 *Runner-up: £110,000 *Semi-final: £55,000 *Quarter-final: £27,500 *Last 16: £15,000 *Last 32: £8,500 *Last 48: £6,000 *Last 64: £4,000 *Last 96: £1,750 *Last 128: £1,000 *Last 192: £600 *Stage one highest break: £5,000 *Stage two highest break: £15,400 *Stage two maximum break: £100,000 *Total: £1,068,000

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).

Century breaks

There were 35

century break In snooker, a century break (also century, sometimes called a ton) is a of 100 points or more, compiled in one to the table. A century break requires potting at least 25 consecutive balls, and the ability to score centuries is regarded as a m ...

s in the Championship, a joint record with the 1993 tournament. The highest break of the tournament was 143 made by

Alan McManus Alan McManus (born 21 January 1971) is a Scottish retired professional snooker player, and a current commentator and pundit for ITV and Eurosport on snooker coverage. A mainstay of the world's top sixteen during the 1990s and 2000s, he has wo ...

. The highest break of the qualifying stage was 143 made by Karl Payne. * 143, 105, 102

* 139, 102 Martin Clark * 139

* 137

Billy Snaddon Billy Snaddon (born 7 July 1969) is a Scottish former professional snooker player. He reached the World Snooker Championship first round five times, but never progressed past this stage. He spent 5 seasons ranked among the game's top 32, peaking ...

* 134, 108 Brian Morgan * 134, 101

* 133, 112

Drew Henry Drew Henry (born 24 November 1968) is a Scottish former professional snooker player, who spent five consecutive seasons of his career in the top 32 of the rankings, peaking at No. 18. Career A strong amateur, Henry won the 1988 Scottish Amateur ...

* 132

John Parrott John Stephen Parrott (born 11 May 1964) is an English former professional snooker player who won the 1991 World Snooker Championship. He came to prominence in the mid to late 1980s, and remained within the top 16 of the world rankings for 14 ...

* 124, 120, 120, 109, 100

* 124

Peter Ebdon Peter David Ebdon (born 27 August 1970) is an English retired professional snooker player who is a former world champion and current coach. Ebdon won nine ranking titles during his career, placing him in joint 14th position (with John Parrott ...

* 119, 100

* 118, 100

Fergal O'Brien Fergal O'Brien (born 8 March 1972) is an Irish retired professional snooker player who competed on the World Snooker Tour from 1991 to 2024. He won one ranking title during his career, defeating Anthony Hamilton 9–7 in the final of the 1999 ...

* 118

Willie Thorne William Joseph Thorne (4 March 195417 June 2020) was an English professional snooker player. He won one ranking title, the 1985 Classic. He also reached the final of the 1985 UK Championship, losing 16–14 to Steve Davis after leading 13– ...

* 116, 112, 108, 107, 103

* 115, 107, 100

Darren Morgan Darren Morgan (born 3 May 1966) is a Welsh former professional snooker player who now competes as an amateur and is considered amongst the best in the world. Morgan won the World Amateur Championship in 1987 and played on the professional m ...

* 114

Dene O'Kane Dene O'Kane (24 February 1963 – 14 May 2024) was a New Zealand professional snooker player. Career O'Kane won the 1980 New Zealand Amateur Championship, and represented New Zealand at the 1982 IBSF World Snooker Championship, winning six ...

* 100

James Wattana James Wattana (; born January 17, 1970, as วัฒนา ภู่โอบอ้อม ''Wattana Pu-Ob-Orm'', then renamed รัชพล ภู่โอบอ้อม ''Ratchapol Pu-Ob-Orm'' in 2003) is a Thai former professional snooker pl ...

References

{{Snooker season 1993/1994

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

World Snooker Championship The World Snooker Championship, or simply known as the World Championship, is the longest-running and most prestigious tournament in professional snooker. It is also the richest event to date with a total prize money of £2,395,000, including ...

Sports competitions in Sheffield April 1994 sports events in the United Kingdom May 1994 sports events in the United Kingdom