The 2018 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2018 Betfred World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament held from 21 April to 7 May 2018 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Hosted by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, it was the 20th and final ranking event of the 2017–18 snooker season and the 42nd consecutive time the World Snooker Championship had been held at the venue. The tournament was broadcast by BBC Sport and Eurosport in Europe, and sponsored by betting company Betfred.
Welsh left-hander Mark Williams won his third world championship and 21st ranking title, defeating Scottish professional John Higgins 18–16 in the final. Williams' victory came 15 years after his second world title in 2003; before the start of the season, he had not won a ranking event in the previous six years. In winning the event, Williams received the highest prize money awarded for a snooker event, £425,000 of a total pool of £1,968,000. Aged 43, he was the third oldest winner at the crucible after Ronnie O'Sullivan who was 44 when he won the 2020 World Snooker Championship and Ray Reardon who was 45 when he won the title in 1978. Defending and three-time world champion Mark Selby had won the world title for the previous two years, but lost in the first round 4–10 to Joe Perry.
The highest of the championship was scored by Higgins, who made a break of 146 in frame 13 of his second round win over Jack Lisowski. However, in qualifying for the event, Liang Wenbo scored a maximum break of 147.
Background The World Snooker Championship is an annual cue sport tournament and is the official world championship of the game of snooker. Snooker was founded in the late 19th century by British Army soldiers stationed in India. The sport originated by players from the United Kingdom, and later players from Europe and the Commonwealth. In more modern times, the sport has transferred to being played worldwide, specifically in Asia, such as in China, Thailand and Hong Kong. The world championship was the final event of the 2017/18 snooker calendar, with the winner of the event being crowned as the professional world champion of the sport.
The world championship sees 32 professional players compete in one-on-one snooker matches in a single elimination format, each played over several . The 32 players for the event are selected through a mix of the world snooker rankings and a pre-tournament qualification round. The first world championship in 1927, held in Camkin's Hall, Birmingham, England, was won by Joe Davis. Since 1977, the event has been held in the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
, Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan are the event's most successful participants in the modern era, having both won the championship seven times. The previous year's championship had been won by England's Mark Selby, who won the event defeating Scotland's John Higgins in the final 18–15. This was Selby's third championship, having won previously in 2014 and 2016. The champion of the 2018 event would win prize money of £425,000, from a total pool of £1,968,000.
Format
The 2018 World Snooker Championship was held between 21 April and 7 May 2018 in Sheffield, England. The tournament was the last of twenty rankings events in the 2017/2018 season on the World Snooker Tour. It featured a 32-player main draw that was played at the Crucible Theatre, as well as a 128-player qualifying draw which took place at the English Institute of Sport from 11 to 18 April 2018, finishing three days prior to the start of the main draw. This was the 42nd consecutive year the tournament was held at the Crucible, and the 50th consecutive year the championship was contested through the modern knockout format.
The top 16 players in the latest world rankings automatically qualified for the main draw as seeded players. Defending champion Mark Selby was automatically seeded 1st overall. The remaining fifteen seeds were allocated based on the latest world rankings (revision 10), which were released following the China Open, the penultimate event of the season. With Selby ranked as the world number 1 entering the event, every player's seed therefore corresponded to their respective world ranking. Matches in the first round of the main draw were played as best of 19 frames. The number of frames needed to win a match increased with each successive round, leading up to the final match which was played as best of 35 frames.
All 16 non-seeded spots in the main draw were filled with players from the qualifying rounds. The qualifying draw consisted of 128 players, including 113 of the remaining 115 players on the World Snooker Tour, as well as fifteen wildcard places allotted to non-tour players. These invited players included the women's world champion, the European junior champion, and all four semi-finalists at the amateur championship. As with the main draw, half of the participants in the qualifying draw were seeded players. Every player ranked from 17th to 80th was allocated one of 64 seeds in order of their ranking, while all of the other participants were placed randomly into the draw. In order to reach the main draw at the Crucible, players needed to win three best of 19 frame matches.
Participant summary Eight former world champions participated in the main tournament: Ronnie O'Sullivan (five titles: 2001, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2013), John Higgins (four titles: 1998, 2007, 2009, 2011), Mark Selby (three titles and two-time defending champion: 2014, 2016, 2017), Mark Williams (two titles: 2000 and 2003), Shaun Murphy (one title: 2005), Graeme Dott (one title: 2006), Neil Robertson (one title: 2010), and Stuart Bingham (one title: 2015). This was O'Sullivan's 26th consecutive appearance in the final stages of the World Championship since his debut in 1993, just one short of Stephen Hendry's record of 27 consecutive appearances and four short of Steve Davis's record of 30 total appearances. Five other former world championship finalists also competed: Matthew Stevens (twice: 2000 and 2005), Ali Carter (twice: 2008 and 2012), Judd Trump (once: 2011), Barry Hawkins (once: 2013), and Ding Junhui (once: 2016). The youngest player to participate in the main stage of the tournament was Lyu Haotian at 20 years of age, while 43-year-old Joe Perry was the oldest; both players entered the main draw through qualifying. Marco Fu made his return to competition at the World Championship, having missed much of the 2017/2018 season after undergoing surgery to repair retinal degeneration and myodesopsia in his left eye.
Three former world champions participated in the qualifying rounds: Ken Doherty (1997), Peter Ebdon (2002) and Graeme Dott (2006). Of these, only Dott succeeded in qualifying for the main tournament at the Crucible. Also, three former world finalists participated in the qualifying rounds: Jimmy White (six times: 1984 and 1990–1994), Nigel Bond (once: 1995) and Matthew Stevens (twice: 2000 and 2005). Of these, only Stevens qualified for the main tournament at the Crucible. The youngest participant in qualifying was Jackson Page at 16 years of age, while 55-year-old Jimmy White was the oldest participant; however, neither player qualified.
Prize fund The breakdown of prize money for 2018 is shown below.
Winner: £425,000 Runner-up: £180,000 Semi-finalists: £85,000 Quarter-finalists: £42,500 Last 16: £27,500 Last 32: £18,000
Last 48: £13,500 Last 80: £9,000 Televised highest break: £10,000 Non-televised highest break: £1,000 Total: £1,968,000
The prize for a in the main rounds was boosted to £40,000, whereas the prize for a 147 in qualifying was £10,000. The latter prize was claimed by Liang Wenbo during his first qualifying round match against Rod Lawler.
Summary
Qualifying rounds
The qualifying rounds took place at the English Institute of Sport from 11 to 18 April 2018. In the first round of qualifying, Liang Wenbo achieved his third professional maximum break, and his second of the 2017/2018 season, in the 10th frame of his match against Rod Lawler. It was the second consecutive year a 147 was made in World Championship qualifying, and the fourth time overall. Liang came very close to becoming the first player to score two maximums in the same match, but he missed the final black after a break of 140 in the last frame. Liang was eliminated in the third round of qualifying; ranked at world number 19, he was the highest-ranked player not to feature in the main draw of the tournament, as both world number 17 Ryan Day and world number 18 Stephen Maguire qualified.
Only seven of the 64 unseeded participants in qualifying (players ranked outside the world's top 80) made it through the first qualifying round, and only one of those seven, Adam Duffy, progressed to the third qualifying round. Duffy did not, however, qualify for the main draw at the Crucible. Four players qualified for the Crucible for the first time: Lyu Haotian, Liam Highfield, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, and Chris Wakelin. Lyu was the lowest ranked player to reach the main stage, at world number 68.
First round
The draw for the opening round of the main tournament was conducted on 19 April 2018, two days before the start of the competition. Technical issues delayed the 10:00 BST start time by two hours, to 12:00. The matches for the first round were spread out over six days from 21 to 26 April, and played using a two table setup in the Crucible Theatre. Each first round match was played over two sessions, as best of 19 frames (10 frames needed to win). Players and spectators criticised the two-hour delay to the tournament's first-round draw, which was caused by "technical issues". World number 22 Joe Perry called the draw "an absolute joke", claiming the delay caused qualifiers to "have no idea when [they] are playing, have to book hotels and make travel plans".
Of the sixteen first round matches, six ended with qualifiers defeating seeded players. The biggest upset of the round happened in the opening match, when Joe Perry defeated the defending champion and world number 1 Mark Selby. Perry won the first four frames before pulling away to 7–2 ahead after the first session of play. Selby was unable to catch Perry and was defeated 4–10, ending his 10-match undefeated streak in the world championships, as well as his two-year reign as world champion. The next highest ranked player to lose was world number 8 Shaun Murphy, who was upset by world number 51 Jamie Jones in a tight 10–9 match, where the scores were level at various stages.
The other four seeds to lose were the players ranked 10 through 13 in the world. Chinese debutant Lyu Haotian, both the youngest and lowest ranked player in the draw, defeated world number 11 Marco Fu in Fu's return to the Tour after eye surgery. Lyu was the only debutant to advance; he was 6–3 up after the first session and went on to win the match 10–5. Robert Milkins defeated world number 10 Neil Robertson 10–5. Jack Lisowski defeated world number 12 Stuart Bingham 10–7, thereby securing his first world championship match win in his second attempt. The 2015 world champion Bingham stated he was going to take a leave of absence from the sport after the loss. Bingham said he wanted to "spend some time with the family and put my cue down for a while". Bingham had spent three months of the season serving a ban for betting infringements; he commented, "It's not been the best of seasons in general, but on the table I've been pretty good." Ricky Walden defeated world number 13 Luca Brecel 10–6; he was comfortably five frames ahead at 8–3, when Brecel won the next three frames to bring the score to 8–6, before Walden won the last two frames of the match.