2022 World Snooker Championship
The 2022 World Snooker Championship was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 16 April to 2 May 2022 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England, the 46th consecutive year the World Snooker Championship was held at the venue. The 16th and final ranking event of the 2021–22 snooker season, the tournament was organised by the World Snooker Tour and sponsored by sports betting company Betfred. It was broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC, in Europe by Eurosport, and elsewhere in the world by Matchroom Sport and other broadcasters. The total prize fund was £2,395,000, of which the winner received £500,000.
Qualifying rounds for the tournament took place from 4 to 13April 2022 at the English Institute of Sport, featuring 128 professional and invited amateur players. The main stage of the tournament featured 32 players: the top 16 players from the snooker world rankings and another 16 players from the qualifying rounds. Ashley Hugill, Jackson Page, and Hossein Vafaei were debutants at the Crucible, Vafaei being the first Iranian player to reach the main stage. Mark Selby was the defending champion, having won the 2021 final against Shaun Murphy. He lost to Yan Bingtao in a second-round match that produced the longest ever played at the Crucible, lasting 85 minutes.
Ronnie O'Sullivan equalled Steve Davis's record of 30 Crucible appearances. He reached a record 20th quarter-final and a record 13th semi-final before defeating Judd Trump in the final to equal Stephen Hendry's record of seven world titles. It was O'Sullivan's 39th ranking title and 21st Triple Crown title. Aged 46 years and 148 days, he became the oldest world champion in the sport's history, surpassing Ray Reardon, who was aged 45 years and 203 days when he won his last world title in 1978. O'Sullivan also broke Hendry's record of 70 wins at the Crucible, setting a new record of 74.
Neil Robertson made a maximum break in his second-round match against Jack Lisowski, the fifth of his career and the 12th time a 147 had been achieved at the Crucible. Graeme Dott also made a maximum break in his third-round qualifying match against Pang Junxu, the second of his career and the fifth time that a maximum had been made in the World Championship qualifiers. The main stage produced a record 109 century breaks, surpassing the 108 centuries made the previous year. Mark Williams made 16 centuries during the main stage, equalling the record set by Hendry in 2002.
Background
The first World Snooker Championship final took place in 1927 at Camkin's Hall in Birmingham, England, and was won by Joe Davis. Since 1977 the tournament has been held annually at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. The 2022 event marked the 46th consecutive year that the tournament was held at the Crucible, and the 54th successive year that the World Championship was contested through the modern knockout format. Scottish player Stephen Hendry had been the most successful participant at the World Championship in the modern era, having won the title seven times. English player Mark Selby won his fourth world title at the 2021 championship, defeating compatriot Shaun Murphy 18–15 in the final, for which he received a £500,000 top prize from a total prize fund of £2,395,000. Organised by the World Snooker Tour, the 2022 tournament was sponsored by sports betting company Betfred, which sponsored the event from 2009 to 2012 and continuously since 2015.Format
The 2022 World Snooker Championship took place from 16April to 2May 2022, as the last of 16 ranking events in the 2021–22 season. The event featured a 32-player main draw, preceded by a 128-player qualifying tournament that was held at the English Institute of Sport between 4 and 13April 2022, finishing three days before the start of the main event. The qualifiers were played over four rounds, higher-ranked players being seeded and given byes to the later rounds. The first three qualifying rounds were played as the best of 11, and the final round was played as the best of 19 frames.The top 16 players in the latest snooker world rankings automatically qualified for the main draw as seeded players. Defending champion Selby was automatically seeded first overall. The remaining 15 seeds were allocated based on the latest world rankings, released after the 2022 Tour Championship. The 1991 champion John Parrott made the first-round draw for the Crucible on 14April at Betfred Studios in Salford, drawing the qualifiers at random against the seeded players. Matches in the first round of the main draw were played as the best of 19 frames, second-round matches and quarter-finals played as the best of 25 frames, and the semi-finals as the best of 33 frames. The final was played over two days as a best-of-35-frames match.
Reaching the first round of the tournament's main stage were 12 players from England, six from Wales, four from Scotland, four from China, two from Thailand, and one each from Northern Ireland, Australia, Belgium, and Iran. It was the first time in the tournament's history that Iran was represented at the main stage. It was also the first time, since the tournament first featured 16 seeded players in 1980, that no seeded player from the United Kingdom was aged under 30. This occasioned debate about the increasing age profile of the UK's top players.
The tournament was broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC and Eurosport, and in Europe by Eurosport. Other international broadcasts were provided by Kuaishou, Migu, Huya Live, 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.
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
Seven-time champion Hendry, who had rejoined the professional tour in 2021 after nine years in retirement, chose not to enter the qualifiers for the 2022 tournament, stating that he had not been practising enough to be competitive. Liang Wenbo, seeded 32nd, would have entered the qualifiers in the third round but the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association suspended him from professional competition on 2April after he was convicted on a domestic assault charge.First qualification round
The first qualifying round featured players seeded from 81 to 112 against unseeded players. Aged 15 years and 277 days, Welsh amateur Liam Davies set a new record as the youngest winner of a World Championship match by defeating Aaron Hill 6–4. Jimmy White, runner-up on six occasions, lost 2–6 to Andrew Pagett, although Pagett was criticised after footage showed him not declaring a. Marco Fu, a semi-finalist in 2006 and 2016, had not competed professionally since the 2020 Welsh Open due to a combination of vision problems and travel restrictions. While preparing for his return, he made a rare break exceeding 147 in a practice match against Noppon Saengkham, compiling a 149. He lost 5–6 to Ian Burns, who made a 141 break in the match. Four female playersReanne Evans, Rebecca Kenna, Ng On-yee, and Nutcharut Wongharuthaicompeted in the qualifiers, but all four lost in the first round. Ukrainian teenager Iulian Boiko, who had become the youngest player ever to compete in qualifying as a 14-year-old in 2020, defeated Michael Georgiou 6–4 to win his first World Championship match.Second qualification round
The second qualifying round featured players seeded from 49 to 80 against the first-round winners. Veteran player Dominic Dale defeated compatriot Duane Jones 6–3, a key win for Dale in his effort to stay on the professional tour. Allan Taylor defeated Michael Judge 6–5 on the final, a victory that helped Taylor remain on the tour through the one-year rankings. Nigel Bond, the 1995 runner-up, lost his place on the tour after a 1–6 defeat to Lukas Kleckers. Bond, the last player who turned professional in the 1980s to remain on the tour without an invitational tour card, subsequently announced his retirement after 33 seasons, commenting: "At 56, my time as a main tour professional is at an end". Bond stated that he would not attempt to regain his professional status through playing in Q School events, but would still compete in the World Seniors Championship, continue coaching, and serve the remainder of his term as a WPBSA Players Board director.Sunny Akani, Andrew Higginson, Fergal O'Brien and Martin O'Donnell all lost their tour cards after defeats. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, also in danger of relegation from the tour, beat Pagett 6–4 in a match that saw Pagett make three centuries and Un-Nooh make a 137 break. Matthew Stevens, runner-up in 2000 and 2005, boosted his chances of remaining on the tour by beating Gerard Greene 6–1. The 1997 champion Ken Doherty lost 4–6 to Rory McLeod.
Third qualification round
The third round of qualifying featured players seeded from 17 to 48 against the second-round winners. Five amateur players reached this stage: James Cahill, Liam Davies, David Lilley, Daniel Wells, and Michael White. Michael White defeated Mark King 6–1. Lilley, the reigning World Seniors Champion, defeated Kurt Maflin by the same score, which meant Maflin lost his place on the tour. The other amateurs did not progress. Dale received a walkover due to Liang's suspension, while Taylor achieved a surprise 6–4 win over 2013 semi-finalist and number 17 seed Ricky Walden, who had narrowly missed qualifying automatically for the Crucible after a semi-final loss in the Gibraltar Open. Scott Donaldson reached the last qualifying round by defeating Li Hang 6–5 on the final black ball, and Ashley Hugill came from 2–5 behind to defeat Martin Gould 6–5, despite suffering from food poisoning during the match.Stephen Maguire, a semi-finalist in 2007 and 2012, played in the qualifiers for the first time since 2018 after falling to number 40 in the world rankings. He defeated Zhang Anda 6–3. Ding Junhui, the 2016 runner-up, played in the qualifiers after falling to 29th in the world rankings. He defeated his compatriot Tian Pengfei 6–4. David Gilbert, a 2019 semi-finalist, defeated McLeod 6–1, and Chris Wakelin defeated the European Masters champion Fan Zhengyi in a deciding frame. Kleckers lost his place on the tour after Matthew Selt beat him in a deciding frame; Michael Holt also lost his tour card following a 3–6 defeat to Tom Ford. Un-Nooh ensured that he would stay on the tour by defeating Jak Jones in a decider.
The 2006 champion Graeme Dott made a maximum break in the sixth frame of his 6–1 victory over Pang Junxu. His second maximum in professional competition, it came 23 years after his first at the 1999 British Open. It was the fifth time a maximum had been made in World Championship qualifying. Hossein Vafaei whitewashed Simon Lichtenberg 6–0 to reach the final qualifying round for the third time, and Jamie Clarke also secured a whitewash victory over 2019 semi-finalist Gary Wilson. The 2008 and 2012 runner-up Ali Carter defeated Gao Yang 6–4, and Stevens defeated Sam Craigie 6–1. The Welsh Open champion Joe Perry lost 3–6 to Jackson Page, who had regained his tour card through Q School after losing it the previous season.