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2003 World Snooker Championship

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Embassy World Snooker Championship
Tournament information
Dates19 April–5 May 2003
VenueCrucible Theatre
CitySheffield
CountryEngland
OrganisationWPBSA
FormatRanking event
Total prize fund£1,682,900
Winner's share£270,000
Highest breakEngland Ronnie O'Sullivan (147)
Final
ChampionWales Mark Williams
Runner-upRepublic of Ireland Ken Doherty
Score18–16
← 2002
2004 →

The 2003 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 2003 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 19 April and 5 May 2003 at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield.

Peter Ebdon was the defending champion, but he lost 12–13 to Paul Hunter in the quarter-finals and became another first-time champion who fell to the Crucible curse and could not defend his first World title.[1]

Mark Williams won his second World title by defeating Ken Doherty 18–16 in the final. The tournament was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy.

Tournament summary

  • Ronnie O'Sullivan's maximum break against Marco Fu in the first round was the fifth at the Crucible, and made O'Sullivan the first player to score two 147s at the venue. It was in fact the first 147 at the Crucible since O'Sullivan himself made one in 1997.[2] However, he lost the match 10-6 to Fu.
  • Stephen Hendry made a 132 break in his first round match against Gary Wilkinson, and became the first player to compile 100 century breaks at the Crucible.[3]
  • During his second round match, Paul Hunter compiled the 750th century at the Crucible in frame four.[3]
  • Mark Williams lost the opening two frames of his second-round match against Quinten Hann before winning 13 in a row – a record for a single match in modern times – to triumph 13–2.[4]
  • In his quarter-final against John Higgins, Doherty won the first ten frames, before Higgins took the next seven. Doherty eventually won the match 13–8.[5]
  • In the semi-finals, Ken Doherty trailed Paul Hunter 9–15 at the start of the final session, Hunter needing only two more frames for victory. Doherty won five in a row to reduce the deficit to one frame, but Hunter then took the 30th; however, Doherty won all three remaining frames to win the match 17–16 and reach the final.[6]
  • Doherty produced a similar comeback in the final against Mark Williams, where he fell 2–10 behind before taking nine of the next ten frames to level at 11–11. He would also level the match at 12–12, 13–13, 14–14 and 16–16, before eventually losing the next two frames and the match.[7]
  • Doherty played a total of 132 frames, a modern-day record at the World Championship.[8]
  • Williams' victory in the final made him only the 3rd player in history to hold all three of snooker's Triple Crown events simultaneously, having also won the UK Championship and Masters tournaments earlier in the season.

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:[9]

  • Winner: £270,000
  • Runner-up: £158,000
  • Semi-final: £79,000
  • Quarter-final: £39,500
  • Last 16: £22,000
  • Last 32: £15,000
  • Highest break: £22,000
  • Maximum break: £147,000
  • Total: £1,682,900

Main draw

Shown below are the results for each round. The numbers in parentheses beside some of the players are their seeding ranks (each championship has 16 seeds and 16 qualifiers).[10][11][12] Template:World Snooker Championship Rounds

Century breaks

There were 53 centuries in this year's championship. The highest break of the tournament was 147 made by Ronnie O'Sullivan.[11][13][14][15]

References

  1. ^ "Crucible curse is too much for Ebdon". Liverpool Daily Post on TheFreeLibrary.com. 1 May 2003. Retrieved 30 September 2013.
  2. ^ Turner, Chris. "World Professional Championship". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 April 2013. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  3. ^ a b Downer, Chris (2012). Crucible Almanac. p. 161.
  4. ^ Turner, Chris. "Various Snooker Records". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 10 February 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2011.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Higgins vs. Doherty was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hunter vs. Doherty was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Doherty vs. Williams was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ "Snooker: Williams is world star; Mark fights his way to snooker title". The Mirror on HighBeam Research. Retrieved 11 May 2012. (subscription required)
  9. ^ Downer, Chris (2012). Crucible Almanac. p. 130.
  10. ^ "Embassy World Championship 2003". BBC Sport. 6 May 2003. Retrieved 19 March 2011.
  11. ^ a b "2003 Embassy World Championship". Global Snooker Centre. Archived from the original on 1 December 2008. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
  12. ^ Downer, Chris (2012). Crucible Almanac. pp. 56–57.
  13. ^ "Crucible century breaks". BBC Sport. 5 May 2003. Retrieved 19 March 2011.
  14. ^ "Crucible Centuries". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 23 May 2011. Retrieved 5 October 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ Downer, Chris (2012). Crucible Almanac. p. 151.
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