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.

Century breaks

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