The 2013 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 2013 Betfair World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 20 April to 6 May 2013 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 37th consecutive year that the World Snooker Championship had been held at the Crucible and was the last ranking event of the 2012/2013 season. The event was sponsored by Betfair for the first time.
Despite having played only one competitive match all season, defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan did not lose a session in the tournament. He defeated Barry Hawkins 18–12 in the final to become a five-time World Champion, joining Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry as the only players ever to defend their titles successfully at the Crucible. He broke Hendry's record of 127 career Crucible centuries, finishing the tournament with 131. He also became the first player to make six century breaks in a World Championship final. The tournament was sponsored by online betting exchange Betfair.
On 26 April 2013, the first Ladies' Day was held at the Crucible, with events designed to promote the sport to girls and women.
Debutants at the Crucible were Jack Lisowski, Michael White, Ben Woollaston, Dechawat Poomjaeng, Matthew Selt and Sam Baird. White advanced to the second round by beating Mark Williams 10–6. Poomjaeng advanced by beating Stephen Maguire 10–9 in the only first-round match that went to a deciding frame.
After a record four Chinese players reached the Crucible in 2012, Ding Junhui was his nation's only representative in 2013. Poomjaeng became only the third Thai player, after James Wattana and Tai Pichit, to reach the Crucible.
By qualifying for the event, Peter Ebdon played in his 22nd consecutive World Championship, equalling the number of consecutive appearances made by Steve Davis. They are second behind the record of 27 set by Stephen Hendry.
World Snooker lodged a formal complaint with the BBC after it ended live coverage during the final stages of the Ronnie O'Sullivan–Marcus Campbell tie to air a repeat episode of the 1970s sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em. With the match also unavailable on the BBC Red Button service, viewers expressed their anger on social networks. The CEO of World Snooker, Barry Hearn, apologised to fans on Twitter.
The second session of the first round match between Ebdon and Graeme Dott had to be pulled off, with Dott leading 8–6. Following Dott's 10–6 victory, he criticised Ebdon for his perceived slow play and called for a rule to limit the amount of time a player could spend over a shot. The match between Poomjaeng and Maguire also had to be finished off in a third session, with Poomjaeng leading 9–8 when the end was postponed.
Dott's second round defeat to Shaun Murphy meant there were no Scottish players in the last eight for the first time since 1988.
White reached his first ranking event quarter-final by defeating Poomjaeng 13–3 with a session to spare. Poomjaeng lost the fourth frame of the match after three failed attempts to hit visible red balls whilst using the spider to bridge over the blue.
O'Sullivan became the first defending champion since Murphy in 2006 to reach the quarter-finals when he defeated Ali Carter, his opponent in the 2008 and 2012 World Championship finals, by 13 frames to 8.
Ricky Walden reached his first Crucible quarter-final by defeating Robert Milkins 13–11. Milkins trailed 3–9, but fought back to 10–11 and 11–12, before Walden won the frame he needed for victory.
Barry Hawkins also reached his first Crucible quarter-final after defeating world number one Mark Selby 13–10.
In the quarter-finals, O'Sullivan took 12 of the first 13 frames against Stuart Bingham and won the match 13–4.
Judd Trump battled back from 3–8 behind against Murphy to win 13–12 after a dramatic 53-minute deciding frame.
Walden beat Welsh player White 13–6 and Hawkins defeated China's Ding Junhui 13–7 to put the two remaining non-English competitors out of the tournament.
This was only the third time in the modern history of snooker that all four World Championship semi-finalists were English. The other two times were when Joe Johnson played Neal Foulds and Jimmy White played Steve Davis in 1987 and when Steve James played White and John Parrott played Davis in 1991.
In the 23rd frame of his semi-final against Trump, O'Sullivan received a reprimand from referee Michaela Tabb for allegedly making an obscene gesture with his cue. A World Snooker spokesman later stated that eyewitnesses had also observed O'Sullivan making an inappropriate gesture, although it was not captured on camera.
O'Sullivan defeated Trump 17–11, and became the first defending champion to reach the final since Ken Doherty in 1998.
Hawkins fought back from 8–12 behind against Walden to win 17–14.
O'Sullivan led the final 5–3 after the first session. Although Hawkins drew level at 7–7 in the second session, O'Sullivan won the last three frames of the day to take a 10–7 overnight lead.
O'Sullivan's break of 103 in the 15th frame was his 128th century break at the Crucible Theatre, breaking Stephen Hendry's record of 127 Crucible centuries. During the final he extended the record to 131 century breaks.
O'Sullivan led 15–10 after the third session, and went on to win the final 18–12 to take his fifth world title. He became the first defending champion to retain his title since Hendry in 1996, and the first player to score six century breaks in a World Championship final.
The final had a total of eight century breaks, which equalled the record set in the 2002 final between Hendry and Ebdon.
At the age of 37, O'Sullivan became the oldest World Snooker Champion since 45-year-old Ray Reardon in 1978.
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 draw for the first round took place on 15 April 2013, one day after the qualifying, and was broadcast live by Talksport at 1.30 pm BST.
The preliminary qualifying rounds for the tournament were for WPBSA members not on the Main Tour and took place on 4 and 5 April 2013 at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield, England.
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
The qualifying rounds 1–3 for the tournament took place between 6 and 11 April 2013 at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, England. The final round of qualifying took place between 13 and 14 April 2013 at the same venue.
There were 55 century breaks in the televised stage of the World Championship. Neil Robertson, the player who compiled the highest break of the tournament, received a Golden Cue.
There were 63 century breaks in the qualifying stage of the World Championship:
