1997 World Snooker Championship

Tournament summary

• The semi-final matches were best of 33 for the first time, having previously been best of 31.
• Ronnie O'Sullivan made the quickest maximum break in history with a time of 5 minutes and 8 seconds, and the fourth in the history of the tournament.
• Terry Griffiths' first round encounter against Mark Williams was his last ever professional match. This match was also three time World Champion Williams' Crucible debut.
• Other debutants this year were Bradley Jones ; Graham Horne; David McLellan and future World Champion and twice runner-up Graeme Dott ; Lee Walker and Dominic Dale. All these players lost in the first round except Dale and Walker, who reached the last-16 and quarter finals respectively. This meant that all four Welsh debutants won their first round matches.
• Stephen Hendry's five-year run as World Champion came to an end after losing to Ken Doherty 12–18. It was Hendry's first defeat at the World Championship since 1991, spanning 29 matches, a Crucible record.
• Doherty became only the second player from outside the United Kingdom to win the world title in the modern era, following Cliff Thorburn in 1980.
• Alan Chamberlain refereed his first and only World Championship final. He was the first referee since Jim Thorpe in 1984 to officiate a debut final. All finals up to this year were officiated by either John Williams, Len Ganley or John Street. The next four years also had referees debuting the final: Lawrie Annandale in 1998, Colin Brinded in 1999, John Newton in 2000 and Eirian Williams in 2001, before John Williams did his 10th final in 2002.

  Prize fund

• Winner: £210,000
• Runner-up: £126,000
• Semi-finalist: £63,000
• Quarter-finalist: £31,500
• Last 16: £16,800
• Last 32: £9,450
• Highest break: £18,000
• Maximum break: £147,000
• Total £1,260,000

  Main draw

Century breaks

• 147, 133 Ronnie O'Sullivan
• 137, 122, 117, 114, 110, 106, 106, 101, 101 Stephen Hendry
• 134, 130, 111, 101 John Higgins
• 133, 129, 129, 102 John Parrott
• 131 Billy Snaddon
• 129, 121, 117 Anthony Hamilton
• 128, 121, 116, 108 Darren Morgan
• 127 Stefan Mazrocis
• 125 Jimmy White
• 123 Mark Williams
• 121, 113 Alain Robidoux
• 116, 104, 101 Ken Doherty
• 112 James Wattana
• 110 Dominic Dale
• 100 Stephen Lee
• 100 Alan McManus

  Qualifying

Round 2–3