The 2008 Welsh Open was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 11 and 17 February 2008 in the Newport Centre in Newport, Wales.
Neil Robertson was the defending champion, but he lost his last 16 match against Ali Carter. Mark Selby won his first ranking title by defeating Ronnie O'Sullivan 9–8, after coming back from 5–8 down.
Notable happenings Tian Pengfei won the last 3 frames to oust one of the Welsh favourites, Matthew Stevens 5–4. David Roe led John Higgins 3–1 before losing 3–5. Mark Williams won the last 3 frames to beat Marco Fu 5–4. Ali Carter led Neil Robertson 4–0 but won only 5–3. Ronnie O'Sullivan won the high break prize with a 143 in the last frame of his 6–3 semi-final victory over Shaun Murphy, surpassing an effort of 134 from Marcus Campbell. Mark Selby had a highest break of 77 in the final compared to O'Sullivan's 135.
Prize fund The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:
Winner: £35,000 Runner Up: £17,500 Semi Finalists: £8,750 Quarter Finalist: £6,500 Last 16: £4,275 Last 32: £2,750 Last 48: £1,725 Last 64: £1,325
Stage one highest break: £500 Stage two highest break: £2,000
Stage one maximum break: £1,000 Stage two maximum break: £20,000
Total: £225,500
Main draw
Top half
Bottom half
Final Final: Best of 17 frames. Referee: Eirian Williams.Newport Centre, Newport, Wales, 17 February 2008. Ronnie O'Sullivan (6) 8–9 Mark Selby (11) Afternoon: 6–90 (77), 50–60, , , , , , Evening: 97–0 (93), , , , , , , , 135 Highest break 77 2 Century breaks 0 7 50+ breaks 6
Qualifying Qualifying for the tournament took place at Pontin's in Prestatyn, Wales between 26 January and 28 January 2008.
Century breaks Main stage centuries
143, 135, 113, 108, 105, 101 Ronnie O'Sullivan 134 Marcus Campbell 133 Ken Doherty 132, 115, 108, 107 Joe Perry 130, 124 Stephen Hendry 129, 108, 105 Shaun Murphy 125, 114 John Higgins 123, 112 Judd Trump 123 Stuart Bingham 117, 101 Marco Fu 115 Ding Junhui
114, 101 Mark Selby 114, 100 Mark Williams 112 Michael Judge 109 Stephen Maguire 107 Jamie Cope 107 Andrew Higginson 105, 102 Ali Carter 103 Dave Harold 102 Rod Lawler 100 Anthony Hamilton 100 Neil Robertson
Qualifying stage centuries
134 Stuart Pettman 128 Munraj Pal 126 Judd Trump 123 Tony Drago 122 Liang Wenbo 113 Issara Kachaiwong
112 Ian Preece 109 Tom Ford 105 David Roe 104 Jimmy Michie 100 Lee Walker
References