2010 World Snooker Championship

Tournament summary

• As part of Barry Hearn’s vision for the future of the game, walk-on music for the players was introduced. It is now universally done for all players qualifying in the tournaments, although for most tournaments, it is only used in the latter stages of tournaments, due to disparate starting times for other matches in the main arena.

  First round

• Debutants at the Crucible were Tom Ford and Zhang Anda. It was also the first time that Zhang has qualified for the main event of any ranking event. Ford played against Mark Allen and Zhang against Stephen Hendry, losing 4–10 and 9–10 respectively.
• Leo Scullion refereed at the Crucible for the first time in his career.
• Steve Davis qualified for the World Championship for a record 30th and final time, spanning over five different decades since his first appearance in 1979. He defeated Mark King 10–9 in the first round, making him the oldest man since Eddie Charlton in 1989 to win a match at the Crucible.
• Four out of the sixteen seeded players lost their first-round matches. Mark King lost 9–10 against Steve Davis, Marco Fu lost 9–10 against Martin Gould, Peter Ebdon lost 5–10 against Graeme Dott and Ryan Day lost 8–10 against Mark Davis.

  Second round

• Steve Davis aged 52 years old defeated the defending champion John Higgins 13–11. With this he reached the quarter-finals of the World Championship for the first time since 2005, and at 52 years old became the oldest player to reach the quarter-finals since Eddie Charlton who was 53 in 1983.
• In the same match Higgins made his 100th century break at the Crucible, becoming only the second player after Stephen Hendry to reach this milestone. It was a break of 115 and it came in the 18th frame of the match.
• Meanwhile, Neil Robertson came back from 0–6 and 5–11 to defeat Martin Gould 13–12.
• Mark Allen made the first 146 break in the history of the Crucible during his match against Mark Davis.

  25th anniversary rematch of the 1985 final

• Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor played a one-frame exhibition match on 29 April, marking the 25th anniversary of the 1985 World Championship final which saw Taylor defeat Davis 18–17 on the final black.
• In the re-creation, all but one of their attempts to recreate missed shots on black failed, which means the black was potted on each occasion and Taylor's attempt to recreate the frame-winning ball also went wrong.

  Semi-finals

• Robertson defeated Ali Carter 17–12, becoming the first player from outside the UK or Ireland since Cliff Thorburn in 1983- and the first Australian since Eddie Charlton in 1975- to reach the final of the World Championship, and the first Australian finalist at the Crucible.
• Graeme Dott beat Mark Selby 17–14, to reach his third final after also doing so in 2004 and 2006.

  Final

• Before the start of the final it was announced that provisional world No. 1 John Higgins had been suspended by the WPBSA following a News of the World story alleging that he had agreed to lose frames in future tournaments in return for money.
• The final was between Scot Graeme Dott and Australian Neil Robertson, marking the first time since 2003 that no English player appeared in the final.
• Robertson won the title, having defeated only one top sixteen player during the tournament. In the first round he beat Fergal O'Brien, in the second round Martin Gould, in the quarter-final Steve Davis and in the final he beat Graeme Dott. Robertson's only match with a top-sixteen player was in the semi-finals, where he beat Ali Carter decisively.
• Robertson became the first Australian to win the title in the modern era, and only the second after Horace Lindrum, who won the controversial 1952 championship. Robertson also became the first player from outside Britain and Ireland to win the title since Canada's Cliff Thorburn in 1980 and the first non-British player to win the title since Ireland's Ken Doherty in 1997.
• Robertson hoped his win would help lift the low profile of snooker in his home country, a prospect supported by a number of local sports promoters.

  Prize fund

• Winner: £250,000
• Runner-up: £125,000
• Semi-final: £52,000
• Quarter-final: £24,050
• Last 16: £16,000
• Last 32: £12,000
• Last 48: £8,200
• Last 64: £4,600
• Stage one highest break: £1,000
• Stage two highest break: £10,000
• Stage one maximum break: £5,000
• Stage two maximum break: £147,000
• Total: £1,111,000

  Main draw

Preliminary qualifying

Qualifying

Century breaks

Televised stage centuries

• 146, 131, 122, 101, 100 Mark Allen
• 146, 130, 127, 116, 115, 112, 110, 105 Graeme Dott
• 142, 117, 108, 106, 104, 103 Mark Selby
• 140, 124, 116, 112, 107, 106, 104 Neil Robertson
• 137, 120, 103 Ding Junhui
• 128, 108, 100 Shaun Murphy
• 128, 102 Steve Davis
• 127, 103 Liang Wenbo
• 127 Stephen Lee
• 122, 104, 100 Ali Carter
• 121, 115, 114, 106 John Higgins
• 121 Stephen Hendry
• 120, 114 Stephen Maguire
• 117, 111, 108, 106, 104, 100 Ronnie O'Sullivan
• 116, 103, 102 Martin Gould
• 115 Mark Williams
• 112 Michael Holt
• 112 Marco Fu
• 107 Tom Ford

  Qualifying stage centuries

• 140 James Wattana
• 139, 100 Mark Joyce
• 138, 133, 121, 101 Bjorn Haneveer
• 137, 104 Matthew Stevens
• 137, 103 Jimmy White
• 134, 114, 113, 103, 101 Zhang Anda
• 134 David Gray
• 133 Barry Hawkins
• 132, 121 Rod Lawler
• 132, 120, 100 Tom Ford
• 131, 126, 105 Michael White
• 131, 104 Chris Norbury
• 129, 114 Martin Gould
• 129 Nigel Bond
• 128, 113, 104 Adrian Gunnell
• 116, 103 Brendan O'Donoghue
• 116, 100 Mark Davis
• 115, 103 Craig Steadman
• 108 Jamie Cope
• 107 Tony Drago
• 105 Joe Jogia
• 104 Matthew Couch
• 103 Sam Baird
• 103 Anthony Hamilton
• 102 Xiao Guodong
• 101 Jimmy Robertson
• 101 Alan McManus
• 100 Li Hang