2008 World Snooker Championship

Tournament summary

First round

• Debutants at the Crucible this year were Jamie Cope, Liu Chuang and Liang Wenbo.
• The previous year's runner up Mark Selby was knocked out by qualifier Mark King 10–8.
• Matthew Stevens's 5–10 defeat to John Higgins was the first time he had ever lost in the first round. Matthew Stevens attempted a 147 after fluking a black in the middle pocket, but failed when the break ended on 112.
• Ding Junhui's 10–9 victory over Marco Fu was his first ever win at the Crucible.
• Ken Doherty's 5–10 defeat to qualifier Liang Wenbo caused him to drop out of the top 16 of the World Rankings for the first time since the 1992/93 season.
• Stephen Maguire took the first eight frames in the first session of his first round match against Anthony Hamilton. Hamilton then won the last frame of the session, thus avoiding a whitewash.

  Second round

• Ryan Day reached the quarter-finals of the World Championship for the first time in his career by beating the defending champion John Higgins 13–9.
• Stephen Hendry reached the quarter-finals for the seventeenth time in his career.
• Liang Wenbo suffered embarrassment when he punched the air in premature celebration of a 13–10 victory over Swail, only for Swail to gain a snooker and take the frame. Swail recovered to level at 12–12, only to miss the brown while clearing the colours in the final frame and lose the match 13–12. The result meant that he would not be in the top 16 the following season. After the match Swail complained bitterly that in the final frame the referee had incorrectly replaced the cue ball after calling a miss, giving Liang an easier escape from a snooker, and accused Liang of unprofessional conduct for not pointing out the referee's mistake.
• Ronnie O'Sullivan scored a maximum break against Mark Williams in the final frame of their match, the ninth of his career in competitive competition, beating Stephen Hendry's record of eight. This was O'Sullivan's third at the Crucible.
• Following his loss to Ronnie O'Sullivan, Mark Williams dropped out of the top 16 of the World Rankings after twelve seasons in it.
• Stephen Maguire repeated his first round feat by winning the first eight frames in the first session of his match against Neil Robertson.

  Quarter-finals

• Ali Carter made the third maximum break of the year. This came just a day after Ronnie O'Sullivan's maximum, the first time there have been two 147 breaks in the main draw of the same ranking tournament. Peter Ebdon came very close to a maximum of his own just a frame earlier, but narrowly missed the fifteenth black. Just minutes before on the other table, Stephen Hendry was also attempting a maximum of his own but missed the fifteenth red.
• Stephen Hendry reached the 12th Crucible semi-final of his career, setting a record for one-table appearances that still stands.
• Liang Wenbo became the first player from mainland China to reach this stage.

  Semi-finals

• Ronnie O'Sullivan whitewashed Stephen Hendry 8–0 in their second session, extending O'Sullivan's streak to eleven consecutive frames against the former seven-time world champion. With winning the opening frame of the third session, he extended the winning streak to 12 consecutive frames. At one point O'Sullivan scored 448 points without reply. This was the first time Hendry had lost every frame in a full session at the Crucible. O'Sullivan won the match 17–6 with a.
• This was Stephen Hendry's last World Championship semi-final, 19 years after his first.
• Ali Carter reached his first ever ranking final by beating Joe Perry 17–15.

  Final

• For the first time in the history of any snooker tournament, both finalists had compiled maximum breaks in earlier rounds.
• For the first time since 1991 two Englishmen played in the final. In 1991 John Parrott defeated Jimmy White 18–11.
• Ronnie O'Sullivan became only the third player after Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry to win more than two World titles at the Crucible.
• In post-match interviews, both players admitted to not having played particularly well, with O'Sullivan commenting "Ali and I are disappointed not to put on a better performance". Carter's performance was described as "jaded".

  Prize fund

• Winner: £250,000
• Runner-up: £125,000
• Semi-final: £52,000
• Quarter-final: £22,000
• Last 16: £14,000
• Last 32: £10,600
• Last 48: £7400
• Last 64: £4500
• Stage one highest break: £1000
• Stage two highest break: £10,000
• Stage one maximum break: £5000
• Stage two maximum break: £147,000
• Total: £1,050,000

  Main draw

Preliminary qualifying

Qualifying

Century breaks

Televised stage centuries

• 147, 140, 138, 135, 133, 126, 123, 109, 106, 102, 102, 100 Ronnie O'Sullivan
• 147, 128, 128, 106, 104, 100 Ali Carter
• 143, 113, 109, 103 Peter Ebdon
• 140, 124, 112, 112, 110 Stephen Hendry
• 137 Stuart Bingham
• 133, 105 Joe Swail
• 132, 127, 121, 110, 104, 102 Joe Perry
• 131, 118, 112, 110, 100 Stephen Maguire
• 126, 101 Jamie Cope
• 126 Graeme Dott
• 125 Nigel Bond
• 123, 104 Liang Wenbo
• 121, 116, 112 Mark King
• 120, 103 John Higgins
• 114, 113 Ding Junhui
• 112 Matthew Stevens
• 108 Mark Selby
• 104 Ryan Day
• 104 Michael Judge
• 103, 100 Marco Fu
• 102 Mark Allen
• 102 Anthony Hamilton
• 102 Shaun Murphy

  Qualifying stage centuries

• 139, 113, 103 Patrick Wallace
• 138 Leo Fernandez
• 138 Gerard Greene
• 137 Mark Davis
• 136, 112, 105, 101 Liang Wenbo
• 135 Rod Lawler
• 132, 110 Dominic Dale
• 132, 103 Andy Hicks
• 129, 100 Alex Davies
• 127 Xiao Guodong
• 126 Robert Milkins
• 123, 107 Matthew Stevens
• 122 Rory McLeod
• 119 Adrian Gunnell
• 118 Michael White
• 116 Marco Fu
• 112 Jamie Burnett
• 112 Fergal O'Brien
• 110 Tom Ford
• 109 Michael Judge
• 109 Ian McCulloch
• 109 Steve Mifsud
• 109 Munraj Pal
• 108 Liu Chuang
• 106 David Roe
• 105 Marcus Campbell
• 104 Mark Allen
• 104 Tian Pengfei
• 103 Jamie O'Neill
• 102, 101, 100 Ian Preece
• 101 James McBain
• 101 Joe Perry
• 101 Jimmy White
• 100 Anthony Hamilton