2019 UK Championship


The 2019 UK Championship was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 26 November to 8 December 2019. The 43rd edition of the UK Championship, it was the seventh ranking tournament and the first Triple Crown event of the 2019–20 season. The event was broadcast on BBC Sport in the United Kingdom and on Eurosport throughout Europe. The tournament was sponsored by betting company Betway.
The defending champion, Ronnie O'Sullivan, had won the previous two championships, defeating Shaun Murphy 10–5 in the 2017 final, and Mark Allen 10–6 in the 2018 final. O'Sullivan was eliminated in the last 16 by Ding Junhui, who won the match 6–4 and proceeded to reach the final of the event, defeating compatriots Liang Wenbo and Yan Bingtao, both 6–2, in the two intervening rounds. Ding's opponent in the final was Stephen Maguire, who had won his semi-final 6–0 against Mark Allen. Ding defeated Maguire 10–6 to win his third UK championship.
Barry Hawkins compiled a maximum break in the fourth frame of his first round match with Gerard Greene. It was the first maximum break to be made at the UK Championship since 2016, and the third of Hawkins' career. There were a total of 139 century breaks in the event.

Overview

The 2019 UK Championship took place between 26 November and 8 December 2019 at the York Barbican, York, England. It was the eleventh ranking event of the 2019–20 snooker season, and the first of three Triple Crown events. There were 128 players from the World Snooker Tour taking part in the championship. All matches until the final were played over a maximum of 11, with the final played as a best-of-19-frames match, held over two sessions. The first round of the competition started on 26 November, with players seeded according to their world rankings. As defending champion, Ronnie O'Sullivan was seeded first, ahead of world number one Judd Trump.

Prize fund

The total prize fund for the event was over £1,000,000 for the first time, with the winner receiving £200,000. The breakdown of prize money is shown below:
The 2019 UK Championship began with the opening round from 26 November with matches not televised. World number eight Shaun Murphy lost to Israeli player Eden Sharav 4–6. Murphy had lead the match 3–1, before Sharav won four of the next five matches to win the match. World number 118 James Cahill defeated number 11 David Gilbert 6–4. Gilbert commented after the match that there were "no positives" from the match, and he wanted to "smash up cue". Barry Hawkins made the highest of the tournament, when he made a maximum break in the third frame of his 6–2 win over Gerard Greene.
Two-time winner Mark Williams was defeated in the second round by Michael White. World number 9 Kyren Wilson was defeated by world number 56 Marco Fu on a.

Tournament draw

The results of the event are shown below. The winners of each match are indicated in bold.

Top half

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Bottom half

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7

Section 8

Finals

Final

Century breaks

A total of 139 century breaks were made by 58 players during the championship. Barry Hawkins made the highest of the tournament, making a maximum break.