The 2008 Bahrain Championship was a one-time snooker tournament of the 2008/09 season that took place from November 8th to 15th, 2008 at the Bahrain International Exhibition Center in Manama . After the Dubai Duty Free Classic , it was the second Main Tour tournament in the Middle East. The tournament, which was held as the fourth ranking tournament of the season, was removed from the Main Tour calendar after this event, as the number of spectators fell short of expectations despite the large number of participants.
Several top players could not compete because they had already been signed for the Premier League before the tournament was scheduled . In addition to John Higgins , Mark Selby and Ding Junhui , Ronnie O'Sullivan , who called in sick, was also missing . Steve Davis , who actually would have benefited from O'Sullivan's withdrawal, had to cancel his round of 16 match due to illness.
There was twice the highest regular break of 147 points at the Bahrain Championship. Liang Wenbo already managed to do this in the qualification in Wales , Marcus Campbell scored a maximum break in the wildcard round. For both of them it was the first 147 break in their careers.
The tournament was one of the five easy ranked tournaments with the lowest number of points for the world rankings . In terms of prize money, it was on par with the two Chinese tournaments and ahead of the British competitions.
a Seeded players who lost their first game in qualifying only received half the number of points.
The maximum break in Bahrain was awarded an additional £ 20,000, the maximum in qualifying was rewarded with £ 1,000.
Final round
The top 16 of the world rankings would have been set for the main round without cancellations, and 16 players could also qualify.
Wildcard round
6 players from the Arab region got a wildcard and were allowed to play against 6 professional players at the start of the tournament. But nobody took the chance to qualify for the main draw.
Neil Robertson had an ideal start to the final and took a 3-0 lead with two Centurys and a break of 96. But Matthew Stevens was unimpressed and made it 3: 4 until the session break. In the second session, too, the Welshman countered every attempt by Robertson to gain a bigger lead and then took the lead 7: 6 for the first time. But this time the Australian countered and not only equalized in a contested frame, but also got the next two frames to 9: 7 success.
Final: Best of 17 Frames Referee: Eirian Williams Bahrain International Exhibition Center, Manama , Bahrain , November 15, 2008
Wales
The qualifiers took place from October 27th to 30th, 2008 at the Pontin's Center in Prestatyn . In round 1, places 65 to 96 of the world rankings played against each other, the winners met in round 2 on places 49 to 64, in round 3 numbers 33 to 48 and in round 4 numbers 17 to 32.
The highlight were the two maximum breaks by Marcus Campbell and Liang Wenbo . While Campbell's first 147 break was the only century break in the tournament, Liang played a total of four Centurys in his qualifying match against Martin Gould , in addition to the maximum two high 139 breaks and a 115 break. According to the official count, these were the maximum breaks number 65 and 66 in snooker history.
19 players scored 33 breaks of at least 100 points in the main tournament, semi-finalist Stephen Hendry was the most successful with five Centurys. There were 22 Centurys in the qualification divided between 15 players.
Neil Robertson
Matthew Stevens
