The 2009 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2009 Betfred.com World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament. It was held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England, the 33rd consecutive year that the World Snooker Championship was staged at the venue. It took place between 18 April 2009 and 4 May 2009. The eighth and final ranking tournament of the 2008–09 snooker season, it was organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association and sponsored for the first time by online betting shop Betfred. The total prize fund was £1,111,000, of which the winner received £250,000.
The qualifying rounds took place from 26 February to 4 March and from 8 to 10 March 2009 at the English Institute of Sport. The 16 qualifiers and the top 16 players from the snooker world rankings reached the tournament's main stage at the Crucible. Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion, having defeated Ali Carter 18–8 in the 2008 final. He lost in the second round to Mark Allen.
John Higgins won his third world title by defeating Shaun Murphy 18–9 in the final. It was his 20th ranking title. A total of 83 century breaks were compiled during the event's main stage, the highest being a 147 made by Stephen Hendry. It was the highest number until 2015. Another 69 century breaks were made during the qualifying rounds.
Organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, the 2009 tournament was sponsored by online betting shop Betfred for the first time.[1]
The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:[2][3]
The first round was played between 18 and 23 April as the best of 19 frames held over two sessions.[4] The defending champion, Ronnie O'Sullivan, made breaks of 61, 140, 104, 73, 78, 94, 100 and 97 for a 10–5 victory against Stuart Bingham, although he rated his performance with a five out of ten.[5] Six-time world champion Steve Davis qualified for the World Championship for a record-extending 29th time, but he was defeated 2–10 by Neil Robertson, who notched a century break of 135 in the process.[6] Clive Everton, writing for The Guardian, hinted that this could be Davis's last appearance at the Crucible.[6] "To me it's not about going out in style. I've gone past that. I'm going down the wall hanging on by my fingernails", said Davis.[6] In a duel between two former world champions, Stephen Hendry won 10–7 over Mark Williams, who had to have his cue stick repaired in the middle of the match.[7] Graeme Dott, winner in 2006, disposed of Barry Hawkins with a 10–8 result.[8]
There were four debutants at the Crucible in this edition—Rory McLeod, Martin Gould, Andrew Higginson and Ricky Walden—and they were all defeated in the first round. McLeod, who became the first-ever black player to play at the Crucible,[9] lost 5–10 to Mark King.[8] Gould defeated the 2000 and 2005 runner-up, Matthew Stevens, in the qualifiers to earn a place at the Crucible,[10] but he could not make it past Mark Allen, who knocked him out in the first round with a 10–6 result.[11] Allen, semi-finalist of the 2008 Bahrain Championship during the season, produced a half-century of 88 in the last frame.[11] As he went into his first-round match against Higginson, Shaun Murphy, the 2005 winner, was threatened by his wife to be presented with the divorce papers at the Crucible.[12][13] Higginson took the lead at 6–5 at the beginning of the second session, but Murphy prevailed with a 10–8 result despite the personal issues.[12][13] Walden, champion of both the invitational 2008 Six-red Snooker International and the ranking 2008 Shanghai Masters earlier in the season, lost 6–10 to Mark Selby, runner-up in 2007.[14] Selby made three centuries in the second session to seal victory.[15]
The runner-up in the previous edition, Ali Carter, had won his first ranking event earlier in the season, the 2009 Welsh Open.[16] In his first-round match, he beat Gerard Greene 10–5.[8] Greene, having reached the Crucible on four occasions, had never made it past the first round of the event.[17] Stephen Maguire compiled breaks of 98, 96, 101, 122, 79 and 127 for a 10–5 defeat of Jamie Burnett.[18] A few months earlier, at the 2008 UK Championship, the game between both players, which also went Maguire's way, was investigated after there were allegations of match fixing, but neither of the players was charged.[18] Marco Fu constructed three centuries en route to a 10–4 victory over Joe Swail.[13] John Higgins, world champion in 1998 and 2007, fell 2–4 behind Michael Holt during the first session, but he only conceded one more frame as he completed the comeback for a 10–5 win.[19] Ding Junhui led Liang Wenbo 7–4, but Liang won four frames on the trot to put himself ahead.[20] Ding then took three consecutive frames, featuring a century break, to clinch victory with a 10–8 result.[20] Only two out of the sixteen seeded players lost their first round matches. The 2002 world champion, Peter Ebdon, was defeated 5–10 by Nigel Bond,[21] while Joe Perry lost 6–10 against Jamie Cope, who made good long pots to advance into the second round of the World Championship for the first time in his career.[22]
In September 2013 Stephen Lee was found guilty of conspiring to lose his first round match 4–10 against Ryan Day,[23] for which as part of other offences Lee received a 12-year ban and was ordered to pay £40,000 in costs.[24]
The second round of the event was played as the best of 25 frames, held over three sessions, between 23 and 27 April.[4]
While the second round was being played, it was announced that the World Snooker Championship would continue to be played at the Crucible Theatre at least until 2014.[32]
The quarter-finals of the event were played as the best of 25 frames, held over three sessions, between 28 and 29 April.[4]
The semi-finals were played as the best of 33 frames, held over four sessions, between 30 April and 2 May.[4]
Both semi-finals featured impressive comebacks from the eventual losers. Allen came back from a 3–13 deficit against Higgins to 12–15 before losing the match 13–17.[36] In a similar manner, Robertson brought a 7–14 deficit back to 14–14 in his match against Murphy, but lost the final three frames.[37]
The final was played as a best-of-35-frames, held over four sessions on 3 and 4 May, between Higgins and Murphy.[4]
Shown below are the results for each round. The numbers in parentheses beside some of the players are their seeding ranks (each championship has 16 seeds and 16 qualifiers).[46][47] The draw for the televised stage of the World Snooker Championship was made on Wednesday, 11 March 2009 at 9:45 a.m. GMT on Radio Sheffield.[48]
Highest break by Higgins: 128 Highest break by Murphy: 109
The preliminary qualifying rounds for the tournament took place on 25 February 2009 at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. (World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association members not on The Tour.)[49][50]
Round 1
Round 2
The qualifying rounds 1–4 for the tournament took place between 26 February and 4 March 2009 at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. The final round of qualifying took place between 8 and 10 March 2009 at the same venue.[49][50]
Rounds 2–5
This is complete list of century breaks scored in both the qualifying and the televised stages.[51]
There were 83 century breaks in the televised stage of the World Championship, a new record beating 2002's and 2007's 68; this record was surpassed in 2015.[citation needed]
There were 69 century breaks in the qualifying stage of the World Championship:[citation needed]
Lokasi Pengunjung: 18.116.23.218