888.com World Snooker Championship

Tournament information
Dates	21 April – 7 May 2007 (2007-04-21 – 2007-05-07)
Venue	Crucible Theatre
City	Sheffield
Country	England
Organisation	WPBSA
Format	Ranking event
Total prize fund	£941,000
Winner's share	£220,000
Highest break	Ali Carter (ENG) (144)
Final
Champion	John Higgins (SCO)
Runner-up	Mark Selby (ENG)
Score	18–13
← 2006 2008 →

The 2007 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 2007 888.com World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It started on 21 April 2007 and was scheduled to finish on 7 May 2007, but continued into the early hours of 8 May, ending at 12:54 a.m. BST. The final broke the record for the latest finish time in a World Snooker Championship final, narrowly beating the 2006 final by two minutes.

Graeme Dott was the defending champion, but lost in the first round 7–10 to Ian McCulloch and became another World Champion who fell to the Crucible curse and could not defend his first World title.

John Higgins won his second World title by defeating qualifier Mark Selby 18–13 in the final. The tournament was sponsored by online casino 888.com.

Tournament summary

• There were five debutants in this year's tournament: future Masters champion Mark Allen was the only one of the five to win his opening match, knocking out third seed and 1997 Champion Ken Doherty 10–7.^[1] Future world champion and future world number one Judd Trump won four qualifying matches, but lost 6–10 to Shaun Murphy after having led 6–5. Another future world number one, Ding Junhui, lost heavily to Ronnie O'Sullivan 2–10. David Gilbert led 7-time champion Stephen Hendry 5–1 at one stage before eventually losing 10–7. Irishman Joe Delaney won two final-frame deciders in Qualifying against Barry Pinches and double world semi-finalist Alan McManus, but was heavily defeated by Matthew Stevens 10–2 having trailed 0–5.
• Former world champion John Parrott made his final appearance at the Crucible, beating Steve Davis 10–9 in the first round before losing 8–13 to Shaun Murphy in the last 16.^[2][3]
• There were final-frame opening round wins for qualifiers Fergal O'Brien and Joe Swail over Barry Hawkins and Mark Williams respectively, Swail coming from 0–4 down. Mark Selby was even further behind, 0–5 against Stephen Lee before winning 10–7.
• Ian McCulloch qualified for the first time since his semi-final appearance in 2005. Having beaten defending champion Graeme Dott in the first round, he lost 8–13 to Anthony Hamilton in the last 16, and this would also prove to be his last appearance at the Crucible.
• Before the tournament began, Ronnie O'Sullivan alleged that the WPBSA draw had been fixed,^[4] after having been drawn in the first round against Ding, considered by bookmakers to be among the favourites for the title,^[4][5] and noting that he had drawn European Open and UK Champion, Stephen Maguire, in both 2004 and 2005.^[4] O'Sullivan later withdrew the accusation,^[6] and made no formal complaint to the WPBSA, who maintain that the draw was genuine.^[4]
• Shaun Murphy came back from 7–12 down to win his quarter-final match 13–12 against Matthew Stevens, a feat never before accomplished in a best-of-25-frame match.^[7]
• In frame 29 of his semi-final match, John Higgins compiled the Crucible's 1,000th century break.^[8][9]
• Future four-time world champion Mark Selby reached his first final this year. He had a surprising run to the final, as he was a qualifier, he had only made his Crucible debut two years earlier, and he had not previously progressed beyond the last 16.
• The final had the latest finish in World Championship history, with the conclusion of the 31st and final frame coming at 12:54 a.m. BST, just two minutes later than in 2006.^[10]
• John Higgins' second world title came nine years after his first,^[11] the longest gap between wins since his namesake Alex Higgins. This was the longest gap between titles at the Crucible until 2018.

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:^[12][13]

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). The first round draw was done by presenters Bill Turnbull and Sian Williams of BBC Breakfast on 19 March and it was announced on Breakfast at 7.30 am BST the next day.^{[12][14][15][16][17]}

First round Best of 19 frames

Second round Best of 25 frames

Quarter-finals Best of 25 frames

Semi-finals Best of 33 frames

Final Best of 35 frames

21 April

Graeme Dott (1)

7

26, 27 & 28 April

Ian McCulloch

10

Ian McCulloch

8

21 & 22 April

Anthony Hamilton (16)

13

Anthony Hamilton (16)

10

1 & 2 May

Marco Fu

3

Anthony Hamilton (16)

7

23 & 24 April

Stephen Maguire (9)

13

Stephen Maguire (9)

10

27 & 28 April

Joe Perry

3

Stephen Maguire (9)

13

24 April

Joe Swail

8

Mark Williams (8)

9

3, 4 & 5 May

Joe Swail

10

Stephen Maguire (9)

15

25 & 26 April

John Higgins (5)

17

John Higgins (5)

10

28, 29 & 30 April

Michael Holt

4

John Higgins (5)

13

22 & 23 April

Fergal O'Brien

4

Barry Hawkins (12)

9

1 & 2 May

Fergal O'Brien

10

John Higgins (5)

13

25 April

Ronnie O'Sullivan (4)

9

Neil Robertson (13)

10

29 & 30 April

Ryan Day

5

Neil Robertson (13)

10

22 & 23 April

Ronnie O'Sullivan (4)

13

Ronnie O'Sullivan (4)

10

6 & 7 May

Ding Junhui

2

John Higgins (5)

18

23 & 24 April

Mark Selby

13

Ken Doherty (3)

7

27 & 28 April

Mark Allen

10

Mark Allen

9

21 & 22 April

Matthew Stevens (14)

13

Matthew Stevens (14)

10

1 & 2 May

Joe Delaney

2

Matthew Stevens (14)

12

21 & 22 April

Shaun Murphy (6)

13

Steve Davis (11)

9

26 & 27 April

John Parrott

10

John Parrott

8

23 April

Shaun Murphy (6)

13

Shaun Murphy (6)

10

3, 4 & 5 May

Judd Trump

6

Shaun Murphy (6)

16

21 & 22 April

Mark Selby

17

Peter Ebdon (7)

10

29 & 30 April

Nigel Bond

7

Peter Ebdon (7)

8

24 & 25 April

Mark Selby

13

Stephen Lee (10)

7

1 & 2 May

Mark Selby

10

Mark Selby

13

25 & 26 April

Ali Carter (15)

12

Ali Carter (15)

10

28, 29 & 30 April

Andy Hicks

4

Ali Carter (15)

13

24 & 25 April

Stephen Hendry (2)

6

Stephen Hendry (2)

10

David Gilbert

7

Final (Best of 35 frames) Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, 6 & 7 May 2007. Referee: Eirian Williams[18]
John Higgins (5)  Scotland	18–13	Mark Selby  England
73–25, 58–32, 19–95, 25–76, 10–132, 97–0, 98–24, 86–5, 75–0, 85–9, 101–24, 70–61, 59–75, 98–0, 78–55, 116–0, 36–73, 0–110, 36–65, 4–74, 0–66, 48–72, 81–40, 63–70, 75–2, 22–82, 54–77, 71–33, 57–43, 129–1, 78–1	Century breaks: 5 (Higgins 3, Selby 2) Highest break by Higgins: 129 Highest break by Selby: 116	73–25, 58–32, 19–95, 25–76, 10–132, 97–0, 98–24, 86–5, 75–0, 85–9, 101–24, 70–61, 59–75, 98–0, 78–55, 116–0, 36–73, 0–110, 36–65, 4–74, 0–66, 48–72, 81–40, 63–70, 75–2, 22–82, 54–77, 71–33, 57–43, 129–1, 78–1
John Higgins wins the 2007 888.com World Snooker Championship

Preliminary qualifying

The preliminary qualifying rounds for the tournament took place in Pontin's Prestatyn, Wales.^[12][19]

Round 1

Bradley Jones	5–0	Neil Selman
Del Smith	5–4	Tony Knowles

Round 2

Bradley Jones	5–0	Stephen Ormerod
Les Dodd	w/o-w/d	David Singh
Ali Bassiri	0–5	Phil Seaton
Del Smith	5–0	Barry Stark

Qualifying

Qualifying for the 2007 World Snooker Championship, was held between 23 February to 2 March 2007 at Pontin's, Prestatyn, Wales. The final qualifying round took place at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield between the 12–15 March 2007.^[12][19]

Round 1

Issara Kachaiwong	8–10	Bradley Jones
Roy Stolk	10–7	Phil Seaton
Ben Woollaston	10–3	Del Smith
James Leadbetter	10–8	Les Dodd

Rounds 2–5

	Round 2 Best of 19 frames				Round 3 Best of 19 frames				Round 4 Best of 19 frames				Round 5 Best of 19 frames
	Alfie Burden	10			Dave Gilbert	10			Gerard Greene	6			Mark King	6
	Robert Stephen	9			Alfie Burden	9			Dave Gilbert	10			Dave Gilbert	10
	Liu Song	10			Tony Drago	9			Adrian Gunnell	10			Michael Holt	10
	Dene O'Kane	3			Liu Song	10			Liu Song	8			Adrian Gunnell	7
	Judd Trump	10			Shokat Ali	7			Jamie Cope	7			James Wattana	5
	Bradley Jones	8			Judd Trump	10			Judd Trump	10			Judd Trump	10
	Tian Pengfei	10			Joe Jogia	10			Drew Henry	10			Joe Perry	10
	Roy Stolk	2			Tian Pengfei	4			Joe Jogia	7			Drew Henry	5
	Mark Joyce	10			Robin Hull	w/d			Fergal O'Brien	10			Stuart Bingham	5
	Mohammed Shehab	6			Mark Joyce	w/o			Mark Joyce	4			Fergal O'Brien	10
	Paul Wykes	3			Rory McLeod	10			Tom Ford	8			Andy Hicks	10
	Alex Borg	10			Alex Borg	6			Rory McLeod	10			Rory McLeod	4
	Lee Page	10			Paul Davies	10			Michael Judge	10			Marco Fu	10
	Dermot McGlinchey	1			Lee Page	1			Paul Davies	5			Michael Judge	9
	Matthew Couch	10			Jimmy Michie	10			Mark Davis	10			Ding Junhui	10
	Jamie Jones	5			Matthew Couch	4			Jimmy Michie	2			Mark Davis	6
	Ian Preece	10			Joe Delaney	10			Barry Pinches	9			Alan McManus	9
	Ben Woollaston	8			Ian Preece	7			Joe Delaney	10			Joe Delaney	10
	Liang Wenbo	10			Mike Dunn	10			Dave Harold	10			Joe Swail	10
	Jeff Cundy	5			Liang Wenbo	3			Mike Dunn	3			Dave Harold	9
	Paul Davison	10			Jamie Burnett	10			Jimmy White	4			Nigel Bond	10
	Peter Lines	8			Paul Davison	5			Jamie Burnett	10			Jamie Burnett	6
	Passakorn Suwannawat	10			David Roe	8			Marcus Campbell	10			Ryan Day	10
	Patrick Einsle	4			Passakorn Suwannawat	10			Passakorn Suwannawat	9			Marcus Campbell	5
	Chris Melling	6			Andrew Norman	10			Dominic Dale	10			Ian McCulloch	10
	David Morris	10			David Morris	8			Andrew Norman	8			Dominic Dale	4
	Lee Spick	10			Mark Allen	10			Rod Lawler	5			Robert Milkins	4
	Sean Storey	4			Lee Spick	5			Mark Allen	10			Mark Allen	10
	Chris Norbury	9			Stuart Pettman	3			John Parrott	10			David Gray	7
	James Leadbetter	10			James Leadbetter	10			James Leadbetter	7			John Parrott	10
	Andrew Higginson	10			Scott MacKenzie	6			Ricky Walden	10			Mark Selby	10
	Mark Boyle	4			Andrew Higginson	10			Andrew Higginson	9			Ricky Walden	6

Century breaks

Televised stage centuries

There were 68 centuries scored in the televised stage of the 2007 championship, which was joint equal highest in the history of the tournament (with the tournament held in 2002) until 2009.^[20][21]

Qualifying stage centuries

^[12]