The 2010 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2010 Betfred.com World Snooker Championship) was a professional

ranking A ranking is a relationship between a set of items 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 order or total preorder of ...

snooker tournament that took place between 17 April and 3 May 2010 at the

Crucible Theatre The Crucible Theatre (often referred to simply as "The Crucible") is a theatre in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England which opened in 1971. Although it hosts regular theatrical performances, it is best known for hosting professional snooker's ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

John Higgins John Higgins, (born 18 May 1975) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won 31 career ranking titles, placing him in third position on the all-time list of ranking event winners, behind Ronnie O'Sullivan (39) and Stephen Hendry ( ...

, who entered the tournament as the defending champion, lost in the second round 11–13 against

Steve Davis Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a commentator, musician, DJ, and author. He is best known for dominating professional snooker during the 1980s, when he reached eight World S ...

. In the semi-finals,

Neil Robertson Neil Robertson (born 11 February 1982) is an Australian professional snooker player who is a former world champion and former world number one. The only Australian to have won a ranking event, he is also the only player from outside the United ...

defeated

Ali Carter Allister Carter (born 25 July 1979) is an English professional snooker player. He has twice been the World Championship runner-up, in 2008 and 2012, losing both finals to Ronnie O'Sullivan. He has won four ranking titles and briefly reached numb ...

17–12 and

Graeme Dott Graeme Dott (born 12 May 1977) is a Scottish professional snooker player and snooker coach from Larkhall. He turned professional in 1994 and first entered the top 16 in 2001. He has won two ranking titles, the 2006 World Snooker Championship a ...

beat

Mark Selby Mark Anthony Selby (born 19 June 1983) is an English professional snooker player, who is a four-time World Snooker Champion. Ranked world number one on multiple occasions, he has won a total of 21 ranking titles, placing him eighth on the ...

17–14. Robertson won the final 18–13, becoming the first

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal A ...

in the modern era to win the title. The tournament was sponsored by online casino Betfred.com.

Tournament summary

* As part of Barry Hearn’s vision for the future of the game, walk-on music for the players was introduced. It is now universally done for all players qualifying in the tournaments, although for most tournaments, it is only used in the latter stages of tournaments, due to disparate starting times for other matches in the main arena.

First round

*Debutants at the

Crucible A crucible is a ceramic or metal container in which metals or other substances may be melted or subjected to very high temperatures. While crucibles were historically usually made from clay, they can be made from any material that withstands te ...

were

Tom Ford Thomas Carlyle Ford (born August 27, 1961) is an American fashion designer and filmmaker. He launched his eponymous luxury brand in 2005, having previously served as the creative director at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. Ford wrote and direct ...

and

Zhang Anda Zhang Anda (born 25 December 1991) is a Chinese professional snooker player, who made his debut on the Main Tour for the 2009–10 season. He qualified by winning the ACBS Asian Under-21 Championship. Standing at 5 ft. 3 in. tall, h ...

. It was also the first time that Zhang has qualified for the main event of any ranking event. Ford played against Mark Allen and Zhang against

Stephen Hendry Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish professional snooker player who dominated the sport during the 1990s, becoming one of the most successful players in its history. After turning professional in 1985 at age 16, Hendry ...

, losing 4–10 and 9–10 respectively. *Leo Scullion refereed at the Crucible for the first time in his career. *

qualified for the World Championship for a record 30th and final time, spanning over five different decades since his first appearance in

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...

. He defeated Mark King 10–9 in the first round, making him the oldest man since

Eddie Charlton Edward Francis Charlton, (31 October 1929 – 8 November 2004) was an Australian professional snooker and English billiards player. He remains the only player to have been world championship runner-up in both snooker and billiards without winn ...

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...

to win a match at the Crucible. *Four out of the sixteen seeded players lost their first-round matches. Mark King lost 9–10 against Steve Davis,

Marco Fu Marco Fu Ka-chun, MH, JP (, born 8 January 1978) is a Hong Kong professional snooker player. He is a three-time snooker world rankings, ranking event winner, having won the 2007 Grand Prix (snooker), 2007 Grand Prix, the 2013 Australian ...

lost 9–10 against

Martin Gould Martin Gould (born 14 September 1981) is an English professional snooker player from Pinner in the London Borough of Harrow. He has appeared in four ranking finals and won one ranking title, the 2016 German Masters. Career Gould began his pr ...

Peter Ebdon Peter David Ebdon (born 27 August 1970) is an English former snooker player. The winner of the 2002 World Snooker Championship, Ebdon won nine world ranking events, placing twelfth on the all-time list of ranking tournament winners. In addit ...

lost 5–10 against

and Ryan Day lost 8–10 against

Mark Davis Mark Davis may refer to: Entertainers *Mark Davis (talk show host), American radio talk show host * Mark Jonathan Davis (born 1965), American actor/singer and creator of Richard Cheese *Mark Davis, American bassist and founding member for the band ...

Second round

aged 52 years old defeated the defending champion

13–11. With this he reached the quarter-finals of the World Championship for the first time since 2005, and at 52 years old became the oldest player to reach the quarter-finals since

who was 53 in

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

. *In the same match Higgins made his 100th century break at the Crucible, becoming only the second player after

to reach this milestone. It was a break of 115 and it came in the 18th frame of the match. *Meanwhile,

came back from 0–6 and 5–11 to defeat

13–12. *Mark Allen made the first 146 break in the history of the Crucible during his match against Mark Davis.

25th anniversary rematch of the 1985 final

*Steve Davis and

Dennis Taylor Dennis Taylor (born 19 January 1949) is a Northern Irish retired professional snooker player and current commentator. He is best known for winning the 1985 World Snooker Championship, where he defeated the defending champion Steve Davis in a ...

played a one-frame exhibition match on 29 April, marking the 25th anniversary of the 1985 World Championship final which saw Taylor defeat Davis 18–17 on the final black. *In the re-creation, all but one of their attempts to recreate missed shots on black failed, which means the black was potted on each occasion and Taylor's attempt to recreate the frame-winning ball also went wrong.

Semi-finals

*Robertson defeated

17–12, becoming the first player from outside the UK or Ireland since

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 ...

- and the first Australian since

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

- to reach the final of the World Championship, and the first Australian finalist at the Crucible. *Graeme Dott beat

17–14, to reach his third final after also doing so in 2004 and 2006.

Final

*Before the start of the final it was announced that provisional world No. 1

had been suspended by the

WPBSA The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) is the governing body of professional snooker and English billiards based in Bristol, England. It owns and publishes the official rules of the two sports and engages in promotion ...

following a '' News of the World'' story alleging that he had agreed to lose frames in future tournaments in return for money. *The final was between

Scot The Scots ( sco, Scots Fowk; gd, Albannaich) are an ethnic group and nation native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged in the early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic-speaking peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded t ...

Graeme Dott and Australian Neil Robertson, marking the first time since 2003 that no English player appeared in the final. *Robertson won the title, having defeated only one top sixteen player during the tournament. In the first round he beat

Fergal O'Brien Fergal O'Brien (born 8 March 1972) is an Irish professional snooker player who plays on the main professional tour since 1991. Ranked within the world's top 64 players from 1994 to 2022, he has reached his highest position of 9th in the 2000 ...

(No. 31), in the second round

(No. 46), in the quarter-final

(No. 23) and in the final he beat

(No. 28). Robertson's only match with a top-sixteen player was in the semi-finals, where he beat Ali Carter (No. 5) decisively. *Robertson became the first Australian to win the title in the modern era, and only the second after

Horace Lindrum Horace Lindrum (born Horace Norman William Morrell, 15 January 1912 – 20 June 1974) was an Australian professional snooker and billiards player. A dominant snooker player in Australia, he lived in Britain for long periods and played in the maj ...

, who won the controversial 1952 championship. Robertson also became the first player from outside Britain and Ireland to win the title since Canada's

in 1980 and the first non-British player to win the title since Ireland's

Ken Doherty Ken Doherty (born 17 September 1969) is an Irish professional snooker player, commentator and radio presenter. As an amateur, Doherty won the Irish Amateur Championship twice, the World Under-21 Amateur Championship and the World Amateur C ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

. *Robertson hoped his win would help lift the low profile of snooker in his home country, a prospect supported by a number of local sports promoters.

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

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 Championship was made on Thursday, 11 March 2010 at 11 a.m.

GMT Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a cons ...

Preliminary qualifying

The preliminary qualifying rounds for the tournament took place on 26 February 2010 at the

English Institute of Sport The English Institute of Sport (EIS), established in May 2002, is an organisation which provides sport science and medical support services to elite athletes through a nationwide network of expertise and facilities, working with Olympic and Pa ...

. (

members not on The Tour.) Round 1 Round 2

Qualifying

The qualifying rounds 1–4 for the tournament took place between 27 February and 5 March 2010 at the

. The final round of qualifying took place between 7 and 9 March 2010 at the same venue. Round 1 Rounds 2–5

Century breaks

Televised stage centuries

There were 60 centuries in the televised stage of the World Championship. * 146, 131, 122, 101, 100 Mark Allen * 146, 130, 127, 116, 115, 112, 110, 105

* 142, 117, 108, 106, 104, 103

* 140, 124, 116, 112, 107, 106, 104

* 137, 120, 103

Ding Junhui Ding Junhui (; born 1 April 1987) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He is the most successful Asian player in the history of the sport. Throughout his career, he has won 14 major ranking titles, including three UK Championships (200 ...

* 128, 108, 100

Shaun Murphy Shaun Peter Murphy (born 10 August 1982) is an English professional snooker player who won the 2005 World Championship. Nicknamed "The Magician", Murphy is noted for his straight cue action and his long potting. Born in Harlow, Essex and r ...

* 128, 102

* 127, 103

Liang Wenbo Liang Wenbo (; born 25 March 1987) is a Chinese professional snooker player based at the Oracle Snooker Club, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England. Liang, who plays left-handed, has reached one Triple Crown final, made three Masters appearances, and ...

* 127 Stephen Lee * 122, 104, 100

* 121, 115, 114, 106

* 121

* 120, 114

Stephen Maguire Stephen Maguire (born 13 March 1981) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won six major ranking tournaments, including the 2004 UK Championship, and has twice since reached the finals of that event. Maguire turned professional in ...

* 117, 111, 108, 106, 104, 100

Ronnie O'Sullivan Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan (born 5 December 1975) is an English professional snooker player who is the current world champion and world number one. Widely recognised as one of the most talented and accomplished players in the sport's history, ...

* 116, 103, 102

* 115 Mark Williams * 112 Michael Holt * 112

* 107

Qualifying stage centuries

There were 50 century breaks in the qualifying stage of the World Championship: * 140

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 ...

* 139, 100

Mark Joyce Mark Joyce (born 11 August 1983) is an English professional snooker player who lives in Walsall. He began his professional career by playing Challenge Tour in 2003. Joyce enjoyed an outstanding amateur career, winning the European Under-19 Cha ...

* 138, 133, 121, 101

Bjorn Haneveer Bjorn Haneveer (born 4 September 1976 in) is a Belgian snooker player and commentator. Haneveer, formerly a professional competitor, now plays at semi-professional level and also commentates on snooker matches for Dutch Eurosport. Career A six ...

* 137, 104

Matthew Stevens Matthew Stevens (born 11 September 1977) is a Welsh professional snooker player. He has won two of the game's Triple Crown events, the Masters in 2000 and the UK Championship in 2003. He has also been a two-time runner-up in the other triple ...

* 137, 103

Jimmy White James Warren White (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player who has won three seniors World titles. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his fluid, attacking style of play, White is the 1980 World Amateur Champion, 2009 ...

* 134, 114, 113, 103, 101

* 134 David Gray * 133

Barry Hawkins Barry Hawkins (born 23 April 1979) is an English professional snooker player from Ditton, Kent. He turned professional in 1996, but only rose to prominence in the 2004–05 snooker season, when he reached the last 16 of the 2004 UK Championship ...

* 132, 121

Rod Lawler Rod Lawler (born 12 July 1971) is an English professional snooker player. He is noted for his slow playing style which gave rise to his nickname, "Rod the Plod". After turning professional in 1990, Lawler has reached one ranking tournament fin ...

* 132, 120, 100

* 131, 126, 105 Michael White * 131, 104

Chris Norbury Christopher Norbury (born 14 August 1986) is an English former professional snooker player. He began his professional career by playing Challenge Tour in 2003, at the time the second-level professional tour. Norbury first entered Main Tour fo ...

* 129, 114

* 129

Nigel Bond Nigel Bond (born 15 November 1965) is an English former 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 s ...

* 128, 113, 104

Adrian Gunnell Adrian Gunnell (born 24 August 1972) is an English former professional snooker player from Telford. He has reached the last-16 in four world ranking events (three in Asia, in three different seasons, and at the 2008 Grand Prix), but has yet to ...

* 116, 103 Brendan O'Donoghue * 116, 100

* 115, 103

Craig Steadman Craig Steadman (born 14 July 1982) is an English professional snooker player. Career Early career Steadman began his professional career by playing Challenge Tour in 2001, at the time the second-level professional tour. He reached the quarte ...

* 108

Jamie Cope Jamie Cope (born 12 September 1985) is an English former professional snooker player. A finalist in two ranking tournaments, the 2006 Grand Prix and the 2007 China Open, Cope also reached the semi-finals of the 2011 Masters. He reached his h ...

* 107

Tony Drago Tony Drago (born 22 September 1965) is a Maltese former professional snooker and pool player. Known for his speed around the table, during his snooker career he won two professional titles: the 1993 Strachan Challenge Event 3 and the 1996 G ...

* 105 Joe Jogia * 104

Matthew Couch Matthew Couch (born 30 June 1974) is an English former professional snooker player. Career During a professional career lasting from 1992 to 2012, Couch had little success in ranking events, although he reached the quarter-finals of the UK C ...

* 103

Sam Baird Sam Baird (born 17 June 1988) is an English former professional snooker player. He first entered the professional tour for the 2009/10 season, by winning the EBSA Pro-Ticket Tour Play-offs. Career 2011/2012 season Baird reached the main draw o ...

* 103 Anthony Hamilton * 102

Xiao Guodong Xiao Guodong (, born 10 February 1989) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He turned professional in 2007 after winning the Asian Under-21 Championships. Career 2007–2010 Xiao appeared as a wildcard in the 2007 China Open, and beat t ...

* 101 Jimmy Robertson * 101

Alan McManus Alan McManus (born 21 January 1971) is a Scottish retired professional snooker player and current commentator who works for Eurosport. A mainstay of the world's top sixteen during the 1990s and 2000s, he has won two ranking events, the 1994 Du ...

* 100

Li Hang Li Hang is the name of: * Li Hang (footballer) (李行, born 1989), Chinese association footballer *Li Hang (snooker player) (李行, born 1990), Chinese snooker player See also * Li Gang (Song dynasty) (李綱, 1083–1140), regional commander se ...

References

External links

* {{Snooker season 2009/2010 World Snooker Championships

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 is the longest-running and most prestigious tournament in professional snooker. It is also the wealthiest, with total prize money in 2022 of £2,395,000, including £500,000 for the winner. First held in 1927, it ...

Sports competitions in Sheffield