The 2008 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 2008 888.com World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 19 April and 5 May 2008 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England.
John Higgins was the defending champion, but he lost in the second round 9–13 against Ryan Day.
Ronnie O'Sullivan won his third World title by defeating Ali Carter 18–8 in the final. It was O'Sullivan's 20th ranking title. The tournament was sponsored by online casino 888.com.
Debutants at the Crucible this year were Jamie Cope, Liu Chuang and Liang Wenbo.
The previous year's runner up Mark Selby was knocked out by qualifier Mark King 10–8.
Matthew Stevens's 5–10 defeat to John Higgins was the first time he had ever lost in the first round. Matthew Stevens attempted a 147 after fluking a black in the middle pocket, but failed when the break ended on 112.
Ding Junhui's 10–9 victory over Marco Fu was his first ever win at the Crucible.
Ken Doherty's 5–10 defeat to qualifier Liang Wenbo caused him to drop out of the top 16 of the World Rankings for the first time since the 1992/93 season.
Stephen Maguire took the first eight frames in the first session of his first round match against Anthony Hamilton. Hamilton then won the last frame of the session, thus avoiding a whitewash.
Ryan Day reached the quarter-finals of the World Championship for the first time in his career by beating the defending champion John Higgins 13–9.
Stephen Hendry reached the quarter-finals for the seventeenth time in his career.
Liang Wenbo suffered embarrassment when he punched the air in premature celebration of a 13–10 victory over Swail, only for Swail to gain a snooker and take the frame. Swail recovered to level at 12–12, only to miss the brown while clearing the colours in the final frame and lose the match 13–12. The result meant that he would not be in the top 16 the following season. After the match Swail complained bitterly that in the final frame the referee had incorrectly replaced the cue ball after calling a miss, giving Liang an easier escape from a snooker, and accused Liang of unprofessional conduct for not pointing out the referee's mistake.
Ronnie O'Sullivan scored a maximum break against Mark Williams in the final frame of their match, the ninth of his career in competitive competition, beating Stephen Hendry's record of eight. This was Ronnie's third at the Crucible.
Following his loss to Ronnie O'Sullivan, Mark Williams dropped out of the top 16 of the World Rankings after twelve seasons in it.
Stephen Maguire repeated his first round feat by winning the first eight frames in the first session of his match against Neil Robertson.
Ali Carter made the third maximum break of the year (seventh of the 2007/2008 season). This came just a day after Ronnie O'Sullivan's maximum, the first time there have been two 147 breaks in the main draw of the same ranking tournament. Peter Ebdon came very close to a maximum of his own just a frame earlier, but narrowly missed the fifteenth black. Just minutes before on the other table, Stephen Hendry was also attempting a maximum of his own but missed the fifteenth red.
Stephen Hendry reached the 12th Crucible semi-final of his career.
Liang Wenbo became the first player from mainland China to reach this stage.
Ronnie O'Sullivan whitewashed Stephen Hendry 8–0 in their second session, extending O'Sullivan's streak to eleven consecutive frames against the former seven-time world champion. With winning the opening frame of the third session, he extended the winning streak to 12 consecutive frames. At one point O'Sullivan scored 448 points without reply. This was the first time Hendry had lost every frame in a full session at the Crucible. O'Sullivan won the match 17–6 with a session to spare.
Ali Carter reached his first ever ranking final by beating Joe Perry 17–15.
For the first time in the history of any snooker tournament, both finalists had compiled maximum breaks in earlier rounds.
For the first time since 1991 two Englishmen played in the final. In 1991 John Parrott defeated Jimmy White 18–11.
Ronnie O'Sullivan became only the third player after Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry to win more than two World titles at the Crucible.
The start of the final session was briefly interrupted by a streaker who ran onto the stage and then crawled under the snooker table.
In post-match interviews, both players admitted to not having played particularly well, with O'Sullivan commenting "Ali and I are disappointed not to put on a better performance". Carter's performance was described as "jaded".
The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:
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 preliminary qualifying rounds for the tournament took place at Pontin's in Prestatyn, Wales between 3 and 5 January 2008.
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
The qualifying rounds 1–4 for the tournament that place at Pontin's in Prestatyn, Wales between 6 and 11 January 2008. The final round of qualifying took place at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield between 7 and 10 March.
Round 1
Rounds 2–5
The highest break received a prize of £10,000, and a 147 break received a prize of £147,000 – a total of £157,000. This prize was shared, as two players made a 147, thus winning £78,500 each. In total there were 63 century breaks made at this year's world championships.
