2010 UK Championship


The 2010 12BET.com UK Championship was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 4–12 December 2010 at the Telford International Centre in Telford, England.
Ding Junhui was the defending champion, but he lost 8–9 against Mark Allen in the last 16.
John Higgins won the title after defeating Mark Williams in the final frame of the final to clinch his third UK title. Higgins had trailed 5–9 and required a snooker in the seventeenth frame to remain in the match. With this win he regained the number one position in the rankings.

Controversy

A controversial incident occurred in the twelfth frame of the Last 32 tie between John Higgins and Stephen Lee. While on a break of 34, Higgins potted the blue in a middle pocket and finished on the next red close to the pink spot. Higgins noticed that the pink had not been spotted correctly and asked the referee to re-spot the pink ball. This drew consternation from commentators Willie Thorne and Neal Foulds, who agreed that this should not have been allowed as Higgins had potted the blue on his previous shot, which rendered the fact that he noticed the incorrect position of the pink academic as he had already continued play after the pink was replaced. Ken Doherty and Steve Davis, covering the event for BBC, agreed with this and suggested that the referee should have refused. Lee did not point out the mistake and Higgins went on to win the frame.

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:

Final

Qualifying

These matches were held between 23 November and 1 December 2010 at the World Snooker Academy, Sheffield, England.

Century breaks