2020 World Snooker Championship


The 2020 World Snooker Championship is a professional snooker tournament taking place from 31 July to 16 August 2020 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It is the 44th consecutive year that the World Snooker Championship is held at the Crucible, and it is the final ranking event of the 2019–20 snooker season. The tournament was originally scheduled to take place from 18 April to 4 May 2020, but the qualifying stage and televised rounds were postponed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was one of the first to allow live audiences since the outbreak of the pandemic, but during the first day it was announced the event would be played behind closed doors for subsequent days.
Qualifying for the tournament was due to be held between 8 and 15 April 2020 at the English Institute of Sport, Sheffield, but this was also postponed. Qualifying instead took place from 21 to 28 July at the originally planned venue. There were 128 participants in the qualifying rounds, with a mix of professional and invited amateur players; 16 players reached the main stage of the tournament where they will play the top 16 players in the snooker world rankings. The event is sponsored by sports betting company Betfred.
The tournament is organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association and the World Snooker Tour, and will be broadcast by the BBC, Eurosport and Matchroom Sport. The event has a total prize fund of £2,395,000, with the winner receiving £500,000. Englishman Judd Trump is the defending champion, having won his maiden world title at the previous year's event, defeating Scotland's John Higgins 18–9 in the final.

Background

The world championship sees 32 professional players compete in one-on-one snooker matches in a single elimination format, each played over several. The 32 players for the event are selected through a mix of the world snooker rankings and a pre-tournament qualification round. The first world championship in 1927, held in Camkin's Hall, Birmingham, England, was won by Joe Davis. Since 1977, the event has been held in the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. The event's most successful player in the modern era is Stephen Hendry, who has won the championship seven times. The previous year's championship was won by England's Judd Trump, who won the event defeating Scotland's John Higgins in the final 18–9. The champion of the 2020 event will win prize money of £500,000, from a total pool of £2,395,000.

Format

The 2020 World Snooker Championship was set to be held between 18 April and 4 May 2020 in Sheffield, England, but was postponed until Friday 31 July until Sunday 16 August due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event will feature a 32-player main draw to be played at the Crucible Theatre, as well as a 128-player qualifying draw played at the English Institute of Sport from originally scheduled for 8 to 15 April but also moved to be played 21 to 28 July 2020, finishing three days prior to the start of the main draw. In May 2019, World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn announced the event's qualifying format would be changed from the previous year, with seeding given to players with a higher ranking, and played over four rounds, rather than three. The tournament is the last of 17 rankings events in the 2019/2020 snooker season on the World Snooker Tour. This will be the 44th consecutive year that the tournament is held at the Crucible, and the 52nd consecutive year the championship was contested through the modern knockout format. The tournament is sponsored by sports betting company Betfred, as it had been since 2009.
The top 16 players in the latest 2019/2020 Snooker world rankings will automatically qualify for the main draw as players. Defending champion Judd Trump will be automatically seeded first overall. The remaining 15 seeds are allocated based on the latest world rankings, which are released following the 2020 Tour Championship, the penultimate event of the season. In the first round of the main draw the matches will be played over the best of 19 frames. Matches in the second round and quarter-finals will be played over the best of 25 frames. The semi-finals will be played over the best of 33 frames, and the final will be played over the best of 35 frames.

Coverage

The tournament is being broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Television and BBC Online, as well as Eurosport. Internationally, the event is broadcast by Eurosport in Europe and Australia, Superstars Online, Zhibo.tv, Youku and CCTV in China, NowTV in Hong Kong and DAZN in Canada, USA and Brazil. In other countries, Matchroom Sport broadcast the tournament, as well as qualifying.
The World Snooker Championship was intended be one of the first sporting events to allow spectators after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. A reduced audience would be admitted to allow for social distancing. The event along with the Glorious Goodwood Festival and two county cricket matches were being used as trials for live audiences by the UK government ahead of restrictions being lifted in October. During the first day of the event, Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister announced that the sporting pilots were being ended and fans would no longer be allowed inside the venue. The World Snooker Tour announced an hour later that fans would be allowed in the venue for the rest of the first day but played behind closed doors for the remainder of the tournament.

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for the event is shown below.

Qualifying

Qualifying for the event was held over four rounds, between 21 and 28 July 2020 with 16 players progressing. James Cahill, who defeated five-time winner Ronnie O'Sullivan in the main stage the year previously lost in the opening round to amateur player Ben Mertens. Mertens, aged 15, became the youngest player to win a match at the event. Mertens lost in the second round to Sam Baird. Allan Taylor won the Challenge Tour play-off to gain a two-year professional tour card prior to qualifying, and won both of his first two matches 6–1. In these matches, he scored four century breaks, including a career high 145 – the highest break in qualifying. Six-time runner-up Jimmy White won his first two qualifying matches, including a 6–4 win over Michael Georgiou, but lost in the third round to Robert Milkins. Gary Wilson, who reached the semi-finals in the 2019 event, lost in the third round of qualifying to Swiss player Alexander Ursenbacher 3–6. Two-time runner-up Ali Carter started in round three, but lost his opening match to Louis Heathcote. This was the first time in 17 years that Carter did not play in the main stage of the event.
The final round of qualifying was played on 27 and 28 July, with matches played as the best-of-19 frames over two. Alexander Ursenbacher is the first Swiss player to play the mainstages of the tournament, after defeating Andrew Higginson 10–8. Ursenbacher lead 6–2 after the first session, but the lead was cut to 9–8 before he won frame 18. Alan McManus qualified for the main stage for the first time since reaching the semi-finals in 2016 after defeating Louis Heathcote 10–5. Elliot Slessor won the final nine frames of the match to defeat Martin O'Donnell 10–3. Slessor had promised to plan a wedding with his girlfriend if he made it through the qualifying rounds. Liang Wenbo lead Fergal O'Brien 5–2, won just two frames of the next eight to trail 7–8. The match went to a at 9–9 which Liang won with a break of 141. Anthony McGill lost only one frame in his win over Sam Baird, whilst Norweigan player Kurt Maflin defeated Matthew Selt by the same scoreline 10–1, to qualify for the first time since 2015.
Slessor and Ursenbacher are making their debuts in the main draw. Other debutants in the main draw are Jamie Clark, Ashley Carty and Jordan Brown. Anthony Hamilton qualified for the main draw of the World Championship for the first time since 2008, but withdrew because of health concerns over the coronavirus. As an asthmatic, he had criticised the decision to allow a limited number of spectators into the Crucible. Defending champion Judd Trump said Hamilton should have made his decision earlier, as by participating in the qualifiers despite knowing there would be spectators in the final stages he had denied a place to another player.

First round

The first round will be played from the 31 July to 5 August. Matches are played as the best-of-19 frames held over two sessions. Defending champion Judd Trump played Tom Ford in the opening match. Ford won the first frame, and attempted a maximum break but missed the pot on the 13th. Ford won the second and third frame as well, before Trump won the next two. Ford won the following two frames, including a break of 140 to lead 5–2, but lost the last two to lead 5–4 after the first session. Ford won the opening frame on the resumption of play, but Trump won the next three frames to take the lead for the first time in the match. Ford won frame 14, before Trump made a break of 131 in the next – his 100th century break of the season. Trump also won the next frame to lead 9–7. Ford won frame 17, but Trump won the match in the next 10–8. Trump's 100th century was only the second time a player had made that many breaks in a season, after Neil Robertson in the 2013–14 snooker season.
, the 2015 winner defeated Ashley Carty 10–7
The 2015 winner Stuart Bingham met qualifier Ashley Carty and lead 5–4 after the first session. Bingham then won the next four frames, including a maximum attempt that fell apart on 12 black balls, and a 109 to lead 9–4. Carty then won the next three frames, before Bingham won frame 17 with a break of 82 to win 10–7. The 2019 UK Championship winner Ding Junhui played Mark King. Ding had not played in any tournaments since the COVID-19 pandemic, but took a 5–4 lead after the first session. The pair were tied at 5–5 to 7–7 before Ding won two frames to lead 9–7. Two 50-minute frames were won by King, leading to a deciding frame. Ding won the frame after potting a mid-range to win 10–9.
The three-time champion Mark Williams was drawn against Alan McManus. After the first session of play, McManus lead 5–4, despite losing the first two frames. In the second session, Williams won six straight frames to win the match 10–5. After the performance, Williams said "he outplayed me and I was happy to be 5–4 down because it could have been 7–2" after the first session, and in the second session he "put pressure on , then he got frustrated and I knew I had him as long as I didn’t make silly mistakes". Four-time champion John Higgins met two-time finalist Matthew Stevens, and held a 6–3 lead after the first session.

Main draw

Numbers given in brackets after players' names show the seedings for the top 16 players in the competition. Players in bold denote match winners.

Qualifying

Qualifying for the 2020 World Snooker Championship took place from 21 to 28 July 2020 at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, using an eight-table set-up. Starting with a pool of 128 players, the qualifying competition consisted of four knock-out rounds. Originally organized for all matches to be best of 19 frames, the first three rounds were played as best of 11 frames, with only the final round being played as best of 19. The 16 winners of the fourth-round matches progressed to the main stage of the tournament at the Crucible Theatre. The 128 qualifiers included 94 tour players ranked outside of the top 16, who were joined by 34 wildcard amateur players. The amateur players were selected as follows:
A total of 17 professional players – 13 from mainland China – chose not to participate at the event due to COVID-19 safety concerns: Zhou Yuelong, Xiao Guodong, Zhao Xintong, Li Hang, Yuan Sijun, Marco Fu, Mei Xiwen, Zhang Anda, James Wattana, Zhang Jiankang, Chang Bingyu, Andy Lee, Chen Zifan, Xu Si, Bai Langning, Lei Peifan and Steve Mifsud. The 2002 champion Peter Ebdon vacated his qualifying position after retiring in April 2020. Also, two invited players from the World Women's Snooker Tour, Ng On-yee and Nutcharut Wongharuthai, declined to participate due to COVID-19 safety concerns.
The qualifying draw was released on 10 July 2020. The first qualifying round consisted of 64 players. Professional tour players ranked 81–112 were seeded 65–96, with the remaining tour players and invited amateurs being unseeded. The second qualifying round consisted of players seeded 33–64 against first round winners. The third qualifying round consisted of players seeded 1–32 against second round winners. The fourth qualifying round were played out between the 32 third round winners.

Qualifying draw

The results from qualifying is shown below. Players in bold denote match winners.

Century breaks

Main stage centuries

A total of 20 century breaks have been made by 14 players during the main stage of the World Championship.
  • 140, 122 Neil Robertson
  • 140 Tom Ford
  • 138 Matthew Stevens
  • 131, 104 Judd Trump
  • 131 David Gilbert
  • 125, 119, 104 Ding Junhui
  • 124, 101 Kurt Maflin
  • 119 Yan Bingtao
  • 118 Ashley Carty
  • 115, 101 Ronnie O'Sullivan
  • 113 Liang Wenbo
  • 111 Mark King
  • 109 Stuart Bingham
  • 105 Alan McManus

    Qualifying stage centuries

A total of 53 century breaks were made by 33 players during the qualifying stage of the World Championship.