The 2015 UK Championship (officially the 2015 Betway UK Championship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 24 November and 6 December 2015 at the Barbican Centre in York, England. It was the fourth ranking event of the 2015/2016 season.
The 2014 champion Ronnie O'Sullivan, who had not played in professional competition since April, decided not to defend his title. He made his debut as a pundit during the tournament, providing in-studio expert analysis for Eurosport alongside Jimmy White.
On the opening day of the tournament, amateur player Adam Duffy defeated world number 9 and two-time UK Champion Ding Junhui 6–2, a result that was described as "one of the biggest upsets in UK Championship history". In the sixth frame of his third-round match against Neil Robertson, Thailand's Thepchaiya Un-Nooh came close to achieving his first maximum break in professional competition, but missed the final black off the spot.
The final between Australia's Neil Robertson and China's Liang Wenbo marked the first time that a British player did not compete in the UK Championship final. In the sixth frame, Robertson made the 115th official maximum break in professional competition, and the first 147 break ever attained in a Triple Crown snooker final, for which he earned £44,000 (a rolling prize of £40,000 for a 147 break, plus the tournament's £4,000 highest break prize). It was the fourth time in a row, that a maximum was made in a UK Championship. Robertson went on to defeat Liang 10–5 to claim his second UK Championship title, and the 11th ranking title of his career.
A record 104 centuries were made during the tournament, including nine from Robertson and eight from Liang.
Prize fund The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:
Winner: £150,000 Runner-up: £70,000 Semi-final: £30,000 Quarter-final: £20,000 Last 16: £12,000 Last 32: £9,000 Last 64: £4,000
Highest break: £4,000 Total: £732,000
The "rolling 147 prize" for a maximum break stands at £40,000 (8 ranking events since it was last won, £5,000 added for each ranking event)
Main draw
Top half
Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4
Bottom half
Section 5
Section 6
Section 7
Section 8
Finals
Final Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee: Jan Verhaas.Barbican Centre, York, England, 6 December 2015. Liang Wenbo (28) 5–10 Neil Robertson (3) Afternoon: 40–71, 16–69 (60), , , , , , Evening: 90–27 (82), , , , , , 110 Highest break 147 1 Century breaks 2 4 50+ breaks 6
Century breaks Source: World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (worldsnookerdata.com)
147, 145, 126, 120, 114, 113, 106, 106, 101 Neil Robertson 143, 126, 100 Stuart Bingham 142, 128, 127 Anthony McGill 141 Gary Wilson 140, 116 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 138, 132, 122, 110, 110, 106, 104, 104 Liang Wenbo 138 Gerard Greene 137, 128 Mark Davis 136 David Morris 135, 109, 101 Peter Ebdon 135 Anthony Hamilton 135 Liam Highfield 134, 134, 129, 119, 103, 102 John Higgins 133, 113, 106 Mark Selby 133, 111, 111, 110 Jamie Jones 133 Fergal O'Brien 132, 119 Ken Doherty 131, 127, 125, 108 Martin Gould 131, 107 Xiao Guodong 129, 121 Ben Woollaston 127, 125, 118 Stephen Maguire 126, 100 Chris Wakelin 125, 111 Tom Ford 124, 106, 102, 100 Shaun Murphy 123, 113 Dechawat Poomjaeng
123 Mark King 123 Alex Taubman 118 Jimmy Robertson 117 Matthew Selt 116 Tian Pengfei 115, 107, 102, 102 Mark Allen 114, 103 Li Hang 112, 101 Judd Trump 112 Sam Baird 111 Jamie Burnett 110 Mike Dunn 108, 102 Michael Holt 108 Stuart Carrington 105 Mark Williams 105 Barry Pinches 104, 103, 102 Marco Fu 104 Jimmy White 102 Ali Carter 102 Luca Brecel 101 Graeme Dott 101 Joe Perry 101 Oliver Lines 100 David Grace 100 Dominic Dale
References
External links Betway UK Championship at World Snooker