The 2020 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2020 Betfred World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 31 July to 16 August 2020 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 44th consecutive year that the World Snooker Championship was held at the Crucible. The final ranking event of the 2019–20 snooker season, the tournament was originally scheduled to take place from 18 April to 4 May 2020, but both the qualifying stage and the main rounds were postponed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was one of the first to allow live audiences since the onset of the pandemic, but on the first day, it was announced that the event would be played behind closed doors for subsequent days. A limited number of spectators were allowed in for the final two days of the championship.
The tournament was organised by the World Snooker Tour, a subsidiary of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, and was broadcast by the BBC, Eurosport and Matchroom Sport. The event had a total prize fund of £2,395,000, with the winner receiving £500,000. Qualifying for the tournament was due to be held between 8 and 15 April 2020, but instead took place from 21 to 28 July at the English Institute of Sport, Sheffield. There were 128 participants in the qualifying rounds, with a mix of professional and invited amateur players, 16 of whom reached the main stage of the tournament, where they played the top 16 players in the snooker world rankings. The event was sponsored by sports betting company Betfred.
Judd Trump was the defending champion, having won his maiden world title at the previous year's event, defeating John Higgins 18–9 in the final. He lost in the quarter-final stage to Kyren Wilson, falling to the Crucible curse. Ronnie O'Sullivan won his sixth world title, defeating Wilson 18–8 in the final. This was O'Sullivan's 37th ranking event win of his career, the most of any player. Higgins made a maximum break in the 12th frame of his second-round loss to Kurt Maflin. This was Higgins' tenth career maximum break and his first at the World Championship; aged 45, he became the oldest player to make a maximum in a professional competition.
Background The World Snooker Championship features 32 professional players competing in one-on-one snooker matches in a single-elimination format, each match played over several . The 32 players for the event are selected through a mix of the snooker world rankings and a pre-tournament qualification round. The first World Snooker Championship took place in 1927, with the final held at Camkin's Hall in Birmingham, England, and the title was won by Joe Davis. Since 1977, the event has been held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. , 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 2019 championship had been won by England's Judd Trump, who defeated Scotland's John Higgins in the final 18–9 to win his first world title. The winner of the 2020 championship received £500,000, from a total prize fund of £2,395,000. The event is organised by World Snooker in partnership with the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association.
Format
The tournament was scheduled to take place between 18 April and 4 May 2020 in Sheffield, England, but was postponed to between 31 July and 16 August as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The event featured a 32-player main draw that was contested at the Crucible Theatre, as well as a 128-player qualifying draw played at the English Institute of Sport. Qualifying was originally due to take place from 8 to 15 April but was also delayed, eventually taking place from 21 to 28 July 2020 and finishing three days prior to the start of the main draw. In May 2019, the World Snooker Tour announced the event's qualifying format would be changed from the previous year, with seeding given to players with a higher ranking, and played over four rounds instead of three. The tournament was the last of 17 ranking events in the 2019–20 season on the World Snooker Tour. This was the 44th consecutive year that the tournament had been held at the Crucible, and the 52nd successive world championship to be contested through the modern knockout format. The tournament was sponsored by sports betting company Betfred, as it had been since 2015.
The top 16 players in the latest 2019–20 snooker world rankings automatically qualified for the main draw as seeded players. Defending champion Judd Trump was automatically seeded first overall. The remaining 15 seeds were allocated based on the latest world rankings, released after the 2020 Tour Championship which was the penultimate event of the season. Matches in the first round of the main draw were played as the best of 19 frames, second-round matches and quarter-finals were played as the best of 25 frames, and the semi-finals were played over a maximum of 33 frames. The final was played over two days as a best-of-35-frames match.
Coverage The tournament was broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Television and BBC Online, as well as Eurosport. Internationally, the event was broadcast by Eurosport in Europe and Australia; by Superstars Online, Zhibo.tv, Youku and CCTV in China; by NowTV in Hong Kong; and by DAZN in Canada, the United States, and Brazil. In all other countries, Matchroom Sport broadcast the main tournament, as well as the qualifying rounds, via their new online subscription service.
The World Snooker Championship was intended to be one of the first sporting events to allow spectators after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. A reduced audience was to be admitted to allow for social distancing. The event, along with the Glorious Goodwood Festival and two county cricket matches, was being used as a trial for live audiences by the UK Government, ahead of restrictions being lifted in October. On the first day of the event, UK prime minister Boris Johnson announced that the sporting pilots were being ended, and spectators would no longer be allowed inside the venue. The World Snooker Tour confirmed an hour later that fans would be admitted for the rest of the first day, but matches were to be played behind closed doors for the remainder of the tournament.
During the semi-final stages, the UK Government announced that the previously postponed sporting event pilots would resume. This meant that the reduced-capacity crowd from the start of the tournament would be allowed back for both days of the final.
Prize fund The winner of the event received £500,000 from a total prize fund of £2,395,000. The breakdown of prize money for the event is shown below.
Winner: £500,000 Runner-up: £200,000 Semi-finalists: £100,000 Quarter-finalists: £50,000 Last 16: £30,000 Last 32: £20,000 Last 48: £15,000 Last 80: £10,000 Last 112: £5,000 Highest break (qualifying stage included): £15,000 Maximum break (main stage): £40,000 Maximum break (qualifying stage): £10,000
Tournament summary Qualifying stage
Qualifying for the event was held between 21 and 28 July 2020 over four separate rounds, with 16 players progressing into the main draw. James Cahill, who defeated five-time champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in the main stage in 2019, lost in the opening round to amateur player Ben Mertens. Mertens, aged 15, became the youngest player to win a match at the event. Mertens lost in the second round to Sam Baird. Allan Taylor won the Challenge Tour play-off to gain a two-year professional tour card prior to qualifying, and won both of his first two matches 6–1. In these matches, he scored four century breaks, including a career-high 145 – the highest break in qualifying. Six-time runner-up Jimmy White won his first two qualifying matches over Ivan Kakovskii and Michael Georgiou, but lost in the third round to Robert Milkins. Gary Wilson, who reached the semi-finals in the 2019 event, lost in the third round of qualifying to Swiss player Alexander Ursenbacher 3–6. Twice runner-up Ali Carter started in round three, but lost his opening match to Louis Heathcote. This was the first time since 2002 that Carter did not play in the main stage of the event.
The final round of qualifying was played on 27 and 28 July, with matches played as the best of 19 frames over two . Ursenbacher became the first Swiss player to play the main stage of the tournament, after defeating Andrew Higginson 10–8. Ursenbacher led 6–2 after the first session, but the lead was cut to 9–8 before he won frame 18. Alan McManus qualified for the main stage for the first time since reaching the semi-finals in 2016 after defeating Heathcote 10–5. Elliot Slessor won the final nine frames of the match to defeat Martin O'Donnell 10–3. Slessor had promised to plan a wedding with his girlfriend if he made it through the qualifying rounds. Liang Wenbo led Fergal O'Brien 5–2, but won just two frames of the next eight to trail 7–8. The match went to a at 9–9 which Liang won with a break of 141. Anthony McGill lost only one frame in his win over Baird, whilst Norwegian player Kurt Maflin defeated Matthew Selt by the same scoreline, 10–1, to qualify for the first time since 2015.
Slessor and Ursenbacher made their debuts in the main draw of the World Championship. Other debutants in the main draw were Jamie Clarke, Ashley Carty and Jordan Brown. Anthony Hamilton qualified for the main draw for the first time since 2008, but withdrew because of health concerns over COVID-19. As an asthmatic, he had criticised the decision to allow a limited number of spectators into the Crucible. Defending champion Judd Trump said Hamilton should have made his decision earlier, as by participating in the qualifiers despite knowing there would be spectators in the final stages he had denied a place to another player.
First round The first round took place between 31 July and 5 August, each match played over two sessions as the best of 19 frames. Defending champion Judd Trump played Tom Ford in the opening match. Ford won the first frame, and was on track for a maximum break but missed the pot on the 13th . Ford won the second and third frame as well, before Trump won the next two. Ford won the following two frames, including a break of 140 to lead 5–2, but lost the last two to lead 5–4 after the first session. Ford won the opening frame on the resumption of play, but Trump won the next three frames to take the lead for the first time in the match. Ford won frame 14, before Trump made a break of 131 in the next – his 100th century break of the season. Trump also won the next frame to lead 9–7. Ford won frame 17, but Trump won the match in the next 10–8. Trump became only the second player to make 100 century breaks in a season, after Neil Robertson in the 2013–14 snooker season.
The 2015 winner Stuart Bingham met qualifier Ashley Carty and led 5–4 after the first session. Bingham then won the next four frames, including a maximum attempt that fell apart on 12 black balls, and a 109 to lead 9–4. Carty then won the next three frames, before Bingham won frame 17 with a break of 82 to win 10–7. The 2019 UK Championship winner Ding Junhui played Mark King. Ding had not played in any tournaments since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but took a 5–4 lead after the first session. The pair were tied at 5–5 to 7–7 before Ding won two frames to lead 9–7. Two long frames were won by King to tie the match at 9–9 and force a deciding frame. Ding won the frame after potting a mid-range to win 10–9.