2017 World Snooker Championship
2017 World Snooker Championship Betfred World Snooker Championship 2017
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Tournament type: | World ranking tournament |
Venue: | Crucible Theater , Sheffield , England |
Opening: | April 15, 2017 |
Endgame: | April 30 / May 1, 2017
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Winner: | Mark Selby |
Finalist: | John Higgins |
Highest Break: | 146 ( Ronnie O'Sullivan ) |
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The 2017 Betfred World Snooker Championship was held from April 15 to May 1, 2017 at the Crucible Theater in Sheffield . It was part of the Snooker Main Tour and ended the 2016/17 season as the 19th ranking tournament .
The defending champion was world number one Mark Selby , who was ranked number 1. The 16 best players in the world rankings were automatically placed, all other professionals and qualifiers had to win a total of three qualifying games according to the Best of 19 mode in order to reach the main round. In the final, Mark Selby won against John Higgins with 18:15, making him the fourth player in the Crucible era (since 1977) to win the world title twice in a row. For Higgins it was the second defeat in his sixth final.
Anniversaries
2017 was an anniversary year for the snooker world championship in two ways. At the opening gala on the eve of the World Cup, not only was the 90th anniversary of the World Cup, which was first held in 1927 , celebrated. It was also the 40th anniversary of the Crucible Theater as a venue since 1977. This anniversary was used as an opportunity to announce the contract extension between the WPBSA and the Crucible for another ten years until the 50th anniversary in 2027.
Prize money
The total prize money distributed rose by a sixth from 1.5 to 1.75 million pounds . For a first round win there was 1,400 pounds more, the world champion got 45,000 pounds more than last year.
Prize money | |
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winner | £ 375,000 |
finalist | £ 160,000 |
Semi-finalist | £ 75,000 |
Quarter finalist | £ 37,500 |
Round of 16 | £ 25,000 |
Last 32 | £ 16,000 |
Last 48 | £ 12,000 |
Last 80 | £ 8,000 |
Highest Break (Qualification) | £ 1,000 |
Highest Break (Main Round / TV) | £ 10,000 |
All in all | £ 1,750,000 |
Jackpot bonus at the | |
Maximum break | £ 5,000 |
The Rolling 147 Price started again at £ 5,000 after Judd Trump made a maximum break at the China Open .
Main round
Tournament course
Round 1 and Round of 16
The highest wins in the first round were achieved by Mark Selby and Stephen Maguire . The defending champion and world number one Selby pulled away from Fergal O'Brien 8-0 before the Irishman could win his first frame. The match ended 10: 2 as did the Scottish duel between Maguire and Anthony McGill . Maguire had to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in many years because he had dropped out of the top 16 of the snooker world rankings, whereas McGill had made it into the top 16 for the first time and qualified directly. But the two were only equal until the 2: 2, then Maguire scored 447 points in a row across sessions without McGill making a point. After four first round defeats, Maguire made it to the last sixteen for the first time.
The biggest surprise at the beginning was the departure of Judd Trump , who had improved to second place in the world rankings thanks to two tournament victories and three other finals during the season. Trump won all four games up to the first session break, but his opponent Rory McLeod turned the first session 5: 4. After that, the match was evenly balanced until McLeod was two frames ahead at 8: 6. Trump, who apparently hindered a shoulder injury towards the end, could no longer compensate and lost 8:10. The second surprise at the start was Xiao Guodong's victory against Ryan Day , which was also very clear with 10: 4. Xiao won 4 frames and 5 frames in a row.
The schedule showed that the two surprise winners had to compete against the two most sovereign winners in round 2. Against Maguire and Selby they lost relatively significantly.
In addition to the three named, only one other seeded player lost to a qualifier: Graeme Dott won the first four frames of the match against world number tenth Allister Carter , the Englishman always lagged behind and lost 7:10. It was Carter's first first round loss at the Crucible in 11 years. Dott, who had reached the top 16 of a tournament for the first time this season, then also had to compete against a sovereign first round winner: Barry Hawkins had not given Tom Ford a chance at 10: 3 and also clearly defeated the Scots 13: 6.
The five newcomers to Crucible all lost their first round matches relatively significantly. Although Gary Wilson was able to turn a 5-1 against Ronnie O'Sullivan into a 5-6, O'Sullivan still achieved a controlled 10-7 win. Only the 8:10 result of the youngest participant Yan Bingtao against Shaun Murphy was even closer . However, the Englishman led during the entire match and the chase of the Chinese with the intermediate result of 5: 9 came too late. The two winners met in the round of 16 and it was O'Sullivan who set the direction from the start and clearly won 13: 7.
In addition to O'Sullivan, only one other player won in the round of 16 against a higher seed: Kyren Wilson defeated world number three Stuart Bingham with 13:10. Although he was unable to defend a 5-0 start at high altitude, he held a narrow lead throughout the match and in the end he asserted himself sovereignly. For the 2015 world champion, the defeat also meant a significant drop in the world rankings.
Mark Allen versus John Higgins was another expected second round match, with the Northern Irish having more trouble against Jimmy Robertson and only winning 10-8 through the last two frames. Against Higgins he just won the first session, but then the Scot took the lead and expanded it to a 13: 9 victory in the decisive phase.
The closest result at the start was Marco Fu's 10: 9 against Luca Brecel . The Belgian had already taken the lead 7-2 in the first session. Fu was able to fight his way back and managed to equalize to 8: 8. After Brecel's 9-8, it seemed like the race to catch up might have been in vain, but the Hong Kong player played on his greater experience and turned the result around with two high breaks. His round of 16 match against Neil Robertson was then also very close. No player was able to break away until 11:11, then the Australian lost two frames in a row and with it the match. In the last frame, he awarded the last black that Fu converted to 64:60.
The round of 16 match between Liang Wenbo and Ding Junhui was even closer . Both had few problems in lap 1. In a direct comparison, Ding had the better start and took the lead 4-1 and 6-2. At 9: 9 Liang managed to equalize for the first time and at 12:11 he was only missing a frame gain. But Ding did it with a 132 break. In the decider, the fourth in the world ranked followed up with a decisive break from the 70s and reached the quarter-finals with 13:12.
Quarter finals
In the quarter-finals, Mark Selby continued his sovereign performance. As in the previous rounds, Marco Fu got off to a bad start, but this time the Englishman gave him no chance to return and Fu only managed to gain a frame at 5: 1, 5: 2 and 11: 3. Selby was the only player to save a third session. A brief third take was made by John Higgins against Kyren Wilson. The aspiring 25-year-old Englishman was unlucky when the bitter orange broke on the tip of the cue early in the match. Higgins pulled away from 5: 3 and 9: 4 to 11: 5 after Session 2 and finally won 13: 6.
The other two matches were closer. Ding Junhui had the better start against Ronnie O'Sullivan, but the Englishman was able to equalize again to 5: 5. Then Ding got five frames in a row and although O'Sullivan was able to partially make up for that, the Chinese defended the remaining lead and won with 13:10. It was only the second victory of Ding over O'Sullivan in a ranking tournament after the Northern Ireland Trophy 2006. The fourth game denied Stephen Maguire and Barry Hawkins. The Scot, who had only delivered five frames by then, did not show consistent performance. At the end of the session, he was able to turn a 1: 4 into a 3: 5 and from a 4: 9 into a 7: 9, but when he finally achieved the 9: 9 equalization, it was Hawkins' turn again and used a weaker phase from Maguire to win 13: 9.
Semifinals
In the semifinals he then met John Higgins. For the fourth time in five years he had come this far. Although the Scot had not reached the semifinals since winning the title in 2011, it was the eighth time that the Crucible Arena was converted from two tables to one table. Although Hawkins slept through the start and was immediately 0: 4 behind, he was able to keep the game open until 3: 5 after the first session and 5: 7 at the break of the second session. But then the Scot increased to 11: 7 and then dominated the third session at will. Hawkins only won a single frame and Higgins reached the final at 17: 8, with only one frame remaining in the fourth session.
The encounter between Mark Selby and Ding Junhui, who had faced each other in the final the previous year, was very different. The Chinese won the first session 5: 3, in the second session the defending champion turned the result to 9: 7. After eight more frames it was 12:12. With two contested frames, Selby finally regained a lead of 2 frames, which he defended until the final score of 17:15.
Results
16 players were placed due to their world rankings. Your 16 first-round opponents had to prevail in the qualification beforehand. The games took place between April 15th and May 1st.
final
At the 2007 World Cup , Higgins and Selby had faced each other before. At that time, the Scot lived up to his role as a favorite and won his second of four titles. This time he was an outsider and at almost 42 years the oldest finalist in 35 years ( Ray Reardon was in the final in 1982 at 49 years old). Favorite Selby also took the lead 2-1, but then Higgins managed a break of 141 points, the highest score ever achieved in a World Cup final and previously only achieved by Ronnie O'Sullivan. This gave him a boost and he won all four frames by the end of the session. In the seventh game he benefited from a mistake by Selby and was able to steal the frame on black. The evening session did not go well for the Englishman either, he won a frame twice, but Higgins got the two following, so that the 6: 2 turned into an interim 10: 4. Then the reigning world champion seemed to be on track and with three frames in a row, one of them with a century break, he was able to achieve a tolerable 7:10 at the end of the first day.
On the second day, Selby picked up where he had left off, while his Scottish opponent no longer reached the previous day's level. After shortening to 9:10, Higgins managed to win the afternoon session's only game. Then Selby got all four remaining frames and made 9:11 a 13:11. He started the last session with another point gain and extended the lead to 16:12 by the break of the session. That meant he was only two frames away from victory. Higgins fought his way to 16:15 with his second Century and a contested 31st frame, but with a Century break and another game-deciding break, Selby won the next two frames and thus the world title.
Selby achieved several records with his victory. In the recent history of snooker since 1977, only Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan had been able to defend their world championship title. The three and final opponent John Higgins had four or more world titles, Selby now followed in fifth as the only triple world champion. The World Cup victory was the fifth title win for him in a season, which had only been achieved by Stephen Hendry and Ding Junhui before. By that season, Hendry also held the one-season prize money record of £ 740,000. Selby earned £ 932,000 in the 2016/17 season including the record £ 375,000 for the world title. With this prize money, Higgins would have surpassed Hendry's record if he had won.
Final: Best of 35 Frames Referee: Jan Verhaas Crucible Theater , Sheffield , England , April 30th - May 1st 2017 |
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Mark Selby | 18 : 15 | John Higgins |
1st session: 76 : 34 (76), 7: 50 , 121 : 8 (62, 58), 0: 141 (141), 40: 99 (63), 1: 126 (95), 54: 59 (58 ), 33: 68 2nd session: 86 : 0 (86), 8: 60 , 44: 74 , 69 : 22, 1: 68 , 0: 76 (76), 81 : 9 (81), 121 : 12 ( 121), 96 : 17 3rd session: 76 : 1, 53 : 2, 29: 107 (78), 63 : 40, 68 : 19 (67), 82 : 0 (58), 72 : 0 (72) 4th .Session: 72 : 22, 36: 74 , 76 : 1 (71), 134 : 4 (54, 70), 34: 88 (88), 0: 119 (111), 47: 75 , 132 : 0 (131 ), 80 : 19 (75) |
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131 | Highest break | 141 |
2 | Century breaks | 2 |
14th | 50+ breaks | 8th |
qualification
The top 16 of the world rankings were set for the main tournament, their 16 challengers were determined through qualification. The three qualifying rounds took place from April 5 to 12, 2017 at the Ponds Forge International Sports Center in Sheffield . All games were played in best-of-19 mode .
The biggest surprise of the first qualifying round was the elimination of Ricky Walden , number 22 in the snooker world rankings , against Hammad Miah . With Robert Milkins , another top 32 player was eliminated, he was defeated by the current U21 European champion Alexander Ursenbacher from Switzerland, the only German-speaking representative who had already been on the Main Tour until 2015. Another ex-pro who made the second round was Peter Lines . He defeated the only Thai in the top 64 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh . Of the non-professionals, apart from these two, only Reanne Evans made progress. The women's world champion had just failed in the first round in 2015 , this time she won her first match at a WPBSA world championship against Robin Hull .
Gary Wilson and Josh Boileau fought a grueling match . With a maximum break and two centuries, the Englishman took the lead 7-2 after the first session. Then the Irishman fought his way back and reached the 9: 9 balance. Wilson eventually won with another century break. He made his second round match similarly exciting. This time he struggled in the first session and was 4: 5 behind. From a 5: 6 he made a 9: 6 with three century and a 64 break and finally won 10: 7. Round 3 he did not win with his Centurys, although he scored an eighth break with more than 100 points, but he still won confidently 10: 3 against the favorite top 32 player Michael White . Gary Wilson moved into the Crucible for the first time in his career.
In round 2 Wilson had beaten one of the remaining amateurs with Peter Lines. Reanne Evans also failed in round 2. After the opening success, she quickly fell 6-0 down in her second match against Lee Walker and lost 6:10. She had to postpone her plan to be the first woman in the main draw for another year. Walker then met Noppon Saengkham , who had beaten number 25 in the world Anthony Hamilton 10: 9 in a hard-fought match . The Thai decided the third round encounter late when he made a 9: 7 from 6: 7 with two Centurys. The game ended 10-8 and Saengkham became the second debutant at the Crucible.
Only one amateur made it into the final qualifying round: Alexander Ursenbacher had defeated Scott Donaldson 10: 9 in round 2 . In round 3 he met an even younger player with Yan Bingtao . After trailing 1: 6, the Swiss made it 3: 6 from the first session, but then lost a lot with 4:10. At 17 years and 58 days, the Chinese was the second youngest player after Luca Brecel 2012 to reach the World Cup finals. His compatriot Zhou Yuelong had to fight more against Ben Woollaston and was another Crucible debutant after a 10-9 win.
The biggest surprise in Round 2 was the elimination of Joe Perry , number 19 in the world rankings, against Akani Songsermsawad . The Thai made a 4: 6 with an intermediate sprint to 9: 6, but then needed four more attempts to win the 10: 9. In round 3 he could only keep up against David Grace until 3: 3 and then lost all further frames. The 10-3 win made the Englishman the fifth and final player to reach the World Cup finals for the first time in his career.
With by far the greatest crucible experience of all qualifiers, the two ex-world champions Graeme Dott and Peter Ebdon made it into the finals again: For the Scot it was the 18th qualification, the 46-year-old Ebdon even reached the 24th time the round of the last 32. There he is also the oldest player, followed by Rory McLeod and Fergal O'Brien , who were also successful in qualifying , who were 46 and 45 years old in March, respectively.
With Mark Williams , another top player and ex-world champion was eliminated from the qualification. He was relatively clearly defeated by Stuart Carrington with 7:10. The decisive frame between Fergal O'Brien and David Gilbert, to 10: 9 in round 3 of the qualification, was the longest frame in snooker history with 2 hours 3 minutes 41 seconds.
Round 1
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round 2
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Round 3
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Century breaks
In the final round, 74 Centuries were played and 84 more in the qualification. Gary Wilson scored the 131st maximum break there .
Main round
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qualification
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swell
- ^ Watch Crucible Show on BBC and Eurosport. World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association (WPBSA), April 14, 2017, accessed April 15, 2017 .
- ↑ worldsnooker.com: Indicative Prize Money Rankings Schedule 2016/17 Season. (DOC; 69 kB) World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association , June 3, 2016, accessed on April 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Brilliant Selby Eases Through , World Snooker, April 15, 2017
- ↑ Trump Suffers Shock Defeat by McLeod , World Snooker, April 19, 2017
- ↑ Dott Sends Captain Home , World Snooker, April 19, 2017
- ↑ Fu Beats Robertson In Thriller , World Snooker, April 24, 2017
- ^ Higgins Storms into Semis , World Snooker, April 26, 2017
- ^ Higgins Leads the Hawk , World Snooker, April 27, 2017
- ^ Betfred World Championship Draw. (PDF; 103 kB) World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association , April 2, 2017, accessed on April 3, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Betfred World Championship (2017). Snooker.org, accessed May 1, 2017 .
- ↑ Higgins Leads Crucible Final , World Snooker, April 30, 2017
- ↑ Selby Conquers the Crucible Again , World Snooker, May 1, 2017
- ↑ Betfred World Snooker Championship - Qualifying Stages - Provisional Format of Play. (PDF; 81 kB) World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association , April 2, 2017, accessed on April 3, 2017 .
- ^ Betfred World Championship Qualifiers Draw. (PDF; 267 kB) World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association , April 2, 2017, accessed on April 3, 2017 .
- ↑ Reanne Evans fails to qualify for the Snooker World Cup in the Crucible. Eurosport, April 11, 2017, accessed April 15, 2017 .
- ↑ Yan Secures Crucible Debut. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association , April 12, 2017, accessed April 13, 2017 .
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↑ Betfred World Championship Qualifiers 2017 - Centuries. (No longer available online.) World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association , archived from the original on April 6, 2017 ; Retrieved April 12, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Betfred World Championship 2017 - Centuries. (No longer available online.) World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association , archived from the original on April 27, 2017 ; accessed on May 1, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.