2021 World Snooker Championship


The 2021 World Snooker Championship was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 17 April to 3 May 2021 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 45th consecutive year the World Snooker Championship was held at the Crucible Theatre and the 15th and final ranking event of the 2020–21 snooker season. It was organised by the World Snooker Tour. The event was sponsored by sports betting company Betfred and broadcast by the BBC, Eurosport and Matchroom Sport. It featured a total prize fund of £2,395,000 of which the winner received £500,000.
Qualifying for the tournament took place between 5 and 14 April 2021 at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. There were 128 participants in the qualifying rounds, consisting of a mix of professional and invited amateur players. The main stage of the tournament featured 32 players: the top 16 players from the snooker world rankings and an additional 16 players from the qualifying rounds. Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion, having won his sixth world title at the previous year's event, where he defeated Kyren Wilson 18–8 in the final. O'Sullivan lost in the second round to Anthony McGill 12–13. Mark Selby defeated Shaun Murphy 18–15 in the final to win his fourth world title and the 20th ranking title of his career. There were a record 108 century breaks made at the Crucible, with an additional 106 made in qualifying rounds. The tournament's highest break was 144 by Murphy in the second round.

Background

The World Snooker Championship features 32 professional players competing in one-on-one snooker matches in a single-elimination format, each match played over a number of. The 32 players for the event are selected through a mix of the snooker world rankings and a pre-tournament qualifying stage. The first World Snooker Championship final took place in 1927. The final was held at Camkin's Hall in Birmingham, England, and the title was won by Joe Davis. Since 1977, the event has been held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It is organised by World Snooker along with the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association., Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O’Sullivan are the event's most successful participants in the modern era, having both won the championship seven times. The 2020 championship had been won by English player Ronnie O'Sullivan, who defeated compatriot Kyren Wilson in the final 18–8 to win his sixth world title. The event was returned to its traditional April schedule after the 2020 championship was delayed to late July because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The winner of the 2021 championship received £500,000 from a total prize fund of £2,395,000.

Format

The 2021 World Snooker Championship took place between 17 April and 3 May 2021 at the Crucible Theatre. The event featured a 32-player main draw, preceded by a 128-player qualifying draw held at the English Institute of Sport. Qualifying for the event was played between 5 and 14 April, finishing three days before the start of the main draw. The qualifying stage was played over four rounds, and the higher-ranked players were seeded and given byes to the later rounds. The tournament was the last of 15 ranking events in the 2020–21 season on the World Snooker Tour. It was the 45th consecutive year that the tournament had been held at the Crucible, and the 53rd successive world championship to be contested through the modern knockout format. The tournament was sponsored by sports betting company Betfred, as it had been since 2009.
The top 16 players in the latest 2020–21 snooker world rankings automatically qualified for the main draw as seeded players. Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan was automatically seeded first overall. The remaining 15 seeds were allocated based on the latest world rankings, released after the 2021 Tour Championship. Matches in the first round of the main draw were played as the best of 19 frames, second-round matches and quarter-finals were played as the best of 25 frames, and the semi-finals were played as the best of 33 frames. The final was played over two days as a best-of-35-frames match.

Coverage

The tournament was broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC and Eurosport. The event was broadcast in Europe and Australia by Eurosport. Other international broadcasts were provided by Kuaishou, Migu, Zhibo.tv, Youku, and CCTV in China; by NowTV in Hong Kong; and by DAZN in Canada, the United States, and Brazil. In territories where there was no other coverage, the event was broadcast by Matchroom Sport.
On 13 March 2021, World Snooker announced that the championship would welcome a limited number of spectators, as part of the Events Research Programme run by the British government in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Details were announced on 7 April, beginning with an audience of 33 per cent of the arena's full capacity for the first round, an increasing number of spectators through the tournament, and a full-capacity crowd to be admitted for the final. All spectators were tested for COVID-19 before and after attending the event.

Prize fund

The winner of the event received £500,000 from a total prize fund of £2,395,000. The breakdown of prize money is shown below:
  • Winner: £500,000
  • Runner-up: £200,000
  • Semi-finalists: £100,000
  • Quarter-finalists: £50,000
  • Last 16: £30,000
  • Last 32: £20,000
  • Last 48: £15,000
  • Last 80: £10,000
  • Last 112: £5,000
  • Highest break : £15,000

    Summary

Qualifying

Qualifying for the event was held between 5 and 14 April over four rounds, and 16 players qualified for the main stage. Seven-time champion Stephen Hendry was playing in the World Championship for the first time since announcing his retirement in 2012. He met six-time runner-up Jimmy White in the first round, the pair having met in four previous finals. Hendry defeated White 6–3, but lost his second-round match 1–6 to Xu Si. The defeat for White meant he was not ranked high enough to remain on the World Snooker Tour, but he was later given an invitational place for the following two seasons.
Three-time World Championship semi-finalist Alan McManus announced his retirement after his second-round loss to Bai Langning. Bai reached the final round of qualifying by defeating Ben Woollaston 6–5. Two amateur players progressed through the first round. Julien Leclercq defeated Soheil Vahedi 6–5 in the first round, but lost 2–6 to Chang Bingyu. Florian Nüßle defeated world number 111 Ben Hancorn in the first round 6–2, but lost to world number 50 Mark King 3–6 in the second round. World number 84 Jamie Clarke was trailing 0–5 in his second-round match against Jamie O'Neill, but won six frames in a row to win the match. He then defeated world number 20 Joe Perry 6–2 to reach the final round of qualifying.
The fourth and final round of qualifying took place on 13 and 14 April. Matches in this round were played over the best of 19 frames. Four players were competing having started in the opening round: Bai Langning, Jamie Clarke, Igor Figueiredo, and Steven Hallworth, but all four lost their final qualifying match. Bai lost 5–10 to Martin Gould; Clarke led 7–2, but won just one more frame, as he lost 8–10 to Mark Davis; Figueiredo lost 7–10 to Mark Joyce and Hallworth lost to 2019 semi-finalist Gary Wilson 3–10.

First round

The draw for the main stage of the tournament was held on 15 April 2021. The opening round took place between 17 and 22 April, each match played as the best of 19 frames. Defending champion O'Sullivan played debutant Joyce in the opening match. O'Sullivan led 3–1, before Joyce made two half-century breaks to trail by one frame. O'Sullivan won the last two frames of the first session to take a 6–3 lead. Joyce won the first frame in the second session, but O'Sullivan took the next to lead 7–4 and then scored three century breaks of 124, 137, and 112 to win the match 10–4. Reigning Masters champion Yan Bingtao played Gould, making five breaks higher than 50 and tying the score at 4–4, having only played eight frames in their opening session. Yan then made two century breaks to lead 8–5, and won the match 10–6. David Gilbert, the 2019 semi-finalist, won seven of the first eight frames of his match against Chris Wakelin, winning the first session 7–2 and the match 10–4. The 2010 champion and third seed Neil Robertson led 6–3 over Liang Wenbo after their first session. Robertson won all four frames in the second session to progress with a 10–3 victory.
Jamie Jones had returned to the tour for the 2020–21 season, having lost his professional status in 2019 after serving a year-long ban for contravening betting regulations. Jones trailed Stephen Maguire 0–3, but pulled ahead to lead 5–4 after the first session, and took all five frames played in the second session to win the match 10–4. He commented that he felt the ban had caused him to "lose everything", while Maguire commented that he was "frustrated. I don’t think there's a word for how I played. If there is a word, I'd get fined!". The previous year's semi-finalist Anthony McGill led Ricky Walden 5–4 in the first session, and won five of the next six to win 10–5. Four-time champion John Higgins played qualifier Tian Pengfei. The pair played just seven of the nine allotted frames in their opening session due to slow play, Tian winning four of the first five to lead 4–3. In the second session, Tian took three of the first four frames to lead 7–4. Higgins, however, won five frames in a row to lead 9–7 before the match was halted as their afternoon session overran. When the match resumed later, Higgins took the 17th frame to win 10–7. After the match, Higgins suggested that Tian would be "kicking himself" for not taking advantage of his own "soul destroying" performance.
File:Jack Lisowski PHC 2016.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|alt=Photo of Jack Lisowski|Jack Lisowski won his first round match 10–9 over two-time finalist Ali Carter.
Kyren Wilson trailed 1–5 in his match against Gary Wilson, but recovered by winning the last three frames of the opening session to only trail 4–5. He also took the first three frames of the second session to move ahead 7–5. Gary Wilson made two half-century breaks to tie the match 7–7, before Kyren scored a half century and a break of 119 to lead 9–7. Gary Wilson took frame 18, but Kyren Wilson won the match with a break of 73. Jack Lisowski trailed Ali Carter 1–3, but ended up leading 5–4 after the first session. The pair were later tied at 8–8, before Carter won frame 17 and Lisowski won the next with a break of 82 to force a deciding frame. Lisowski made a break of 60 to win the final frame and the match. When interviewed afterwards, he admitted that Carter was the "worst draw" but added: "I've never won a tournament so why not make the World Championship the first one?" Mark Allen defeated Lyu Haotian, having led 7–2 after the first session and then winning three straight frames to take the match 10–2. The first session of the match between Ding Junhui and Stuart Bingham ended with a on the final, Ding attempting a pot, in which the black ended in the opposite corner from where he was attempting a pot, giving him a 5–4 lead. Bingham made breaks of 60, 92, and 104, en route to a 9–8 advantage, before Ding took frame 18 to tie the match and force a deciding frame. This final frame was delayed until after the next session ended; Ding made a break of 45, but misjudged a pot on a, allowing Bingham to make a break of 70 to win the match.
World number one Judd Trump defeated Liam Highfield 10–4, having won the opening session 7–2. Barry Hawkins took a 6–3 lead over Matthew Selt after their first session of play, and took four of the five frames in the second session to win the match 10–4. Three-time champion Mark Williams trailed 0–2 at the start of his match against Sam Craigie, but won five of the next seven frames to take a 5–4 lead. On the resumption of play, Williams won five straight frames to take the match 10–4. Commenting afterwards he indicated he was not going to turn down any opportunity to pot a ball after that first session, that he would "go for everything". The 2005 champion Shaun Murphy trailed 3–5 in his match against Mark Davis, but won the final frame of the first session with a break of 113. Murphy credited this century for giving him additional motivation for the second session as he won six of the eight frames to seal a 10–7 victory. The final match of the first round was contested between Mark Selby and Kurt Maflin. Selby won the first three frames, before Maflin took the fourth with a break of 91. Maflin only scored six points across the next four frames as Selby finished the first session 8–1 ahead. He then took the next two frames to win the match 10–1. Only two of the sixteen qualifiers advanced to the second round.