2015 World Snooker Championship

Tournament summary

Players from 24 countries took part in the tournament (75 from England, 14 from Scotland, 12 from China, 11 from Wales, 5 from Thailand, 4 from the Republic of Ireland, 3 from Northern Ireland, 2 each from Belgium, Brazil, Malta, and 1 each from Hong Kong, Australia, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, India, Iran, the Isle of Man, Latvia, Malaysia, Norway, Qatar, Singapore, and Switzerland). Representatives of 9 different countries reached the final 32 (16 from England, 5 from Scotland, 4 from Wales, 2 from China, and 1 each from Northern Ireland, Hong Kong, Australia, Finland, and Norway).

Ten former world champions competed in the tournament. Peter Ebdon, Steve Davis, and Ken Doherty lost in the qualifying rounds, but Graeme Dott successfully qualified for the last 32. Six other former champions (John Higgins, Shaun Murphy, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Neil Robertson, Mark Selby, and Mark Williams) automatically qualified by virtue of their top-16 seedings.

Seeding and qualifying rounds

The top 16 seeds automatically qualified for the last 32. Defending champion Mark Selby was seeded 1, while other seeded places were allocated based on the latest world rankings. The one exception was Ali Carter, who was seeded 13, despite being ranked 31, because his seeding had been frozen while he underwent treatment for cancer. This meant that Michael White, ranked 16, had to play in the qualifying tournament. For the first time, players ranked 17–32 had to win three qualifying matches, rather than one, a change that was seen as unfair by some players in the top 32, including Graeme Dott.

Despite losing 1–10 to Kurt Maflin, Steve Davis became the first player to compete in 100 World Championship matches, including qualifiers. Ten-time women's world champion Reanne Evans attempted to become the first woman to reach the televised stages of the World Championship, but she lost 8–10 to Ken Doherty in the first qualifying round.

First round

First-round debutants at the Crucible were England's Craig Steadman and Stuart Carrington, Scotland's Anthony McGill, and Norway's Kurt Maflin. McGill and Carrington had both played at the Crucible before, in the Junior Pot Black in 2006. Mark Selby narrowly escaped a first-round exit, recovering from 8–9 down against Maflin to clinch a 10–9 win. In his match against Steadman, Ronnie O'Sullivan risked a sanction for removing a pair of uncomfortable shoes and playing briefly in his socks, before borrowing a replacement pair of shoes from tournament director Mike Ganley. Ali Carter, back at the Crucible after extensive treatment for cancer, won his match 10–5 against Alan McManus.

Second round

Mark Selby succumbed to the Crucible curse, losing 9–13 to Anthony McGill to become the 16th first-time champion who failed to defend his title since the tournament moved to the Crucible in 1977. Ding Junhui defeated John Higgins 13–9 to reach only his third quarter-final in nine years. Barry Hawkins reached the quarter-finals after defeating Mark Allen 13–11, coming back from 8–11 behind in the final session. Stuart Bingham reached his second Crucible quarter-final, winning seven out of the last eight frames to defeat Graeme Dott 13–5. Three of the other four second round matches ended with 13–5 wins for Ronnie O'Sullivan over Matthew Stevens, Shaun Murphy over Joe Perry, and Neil Robertson over Ali Carter. Judd Trump defeated Hong Kong's Marco Fu 13–8.

Quarter-finals

Judd Trump defeated Ding Junhui 13–4 to reach his third World Championship semi-final, while Shaun Murphy defeated the last remaining qualifier Anthony McGill 13–8 to reach the semi-finals for the first time since 2009. Stuart Bingham reached the first World Championship semi-final of his career with a surprise 13–9 victory over tournament favourite Ronnie O'Sullivan, who had beaten Bingham 13–4 at the same stage of the tournament two years before. A controversial incident occurred in the fifth frame of the match, when O'Sullivan placed his chalk on the table and used it to line up a shot. Referee Terry Camilleri did not penalise O'Sullivan, even though the rules of snooker call for a 7-point foul if a player uses an object to measure gaps or distances. The referee's handling of the incident was questioned from the commentary box by former world champion Ken Doherty and on Twitter by former tour referee Michaela Tabb. In the last quarter-final match, Barry Hawkins defeated Neil Robertson 13–12 to reach the semi-finals for a third consecutive year. Hawkins and Robertson produced four century breaks each to equal the record of eight centuries in one match, and set a new record for a 25-frame match. Their encounter also included the longest frame in the tournament, at 70 minutes and 22 seconds.

Semi-finals

For the fourth time in modern snooker history, all four World Championship semi-finalists were English. Shaun Murphy was the only former champion to reach the last four. The first two sessions between Murphy and Barry Hawkins were one-sided, with Murphy taking a 6–2 lead and then extending it to 13–3. Even though Hawkins won five out of eight frames in the third session, preventing Murphy from winning the match with a session to spare, Murphy wrapped up a 17–9 victory in the final session to reach the third World Championship final of his career. With five century breaks from Murphy and three from Hawkins, the match again equaled the record for the most centuries in a professional match. In a much closer encounter, Stuart Bingham led Judd Trump 5–3 after the first session, 9–7 after the second, and 13–11 after the third. From 14–16 down, Trump produced two consecutive century breaks to force a deciding frame, but Bingham prevailed in the decider to defeat Trump 17–16 and reach his first World Championship final.

Final

At the age of 38, Stuart Bingham was the oldest first-time finalist at the Crucible since 45-year-old Ray Reardon in 1978, although Reardon had already won five world titles at other venues by that point in his career. It was the third appearance in the final for Shaun Murphy, who won the title in 2005 with an 18–16 victory over Matthew Stevens and was runner-up in 2009 when he lost 9–18 to John Higgins. Murphy was attempting to become the first player since Alex Higgins to win a second world title ten years after his first. The final was refereed for the first time by Olivier Marteel, from Koksijde in West Flanders, Belgium. He was the first Belgian to take charge of a World Championship final, and the second referee from continental Europe to do so, after Jan Verhaas.

In the opening session of the final, Murphy took a 3–0 lead, but Bingham fought back to end the session all-square at 4–4. In the second session of nine frames, Murphy began strongly, winning four consecutive frames to move 8–4 ahead, but Bingham won four of the next five to reduce Murphy's lead to 9–8 overnight. Bingham's break of 123 in the 14th frame was the 84th century break compiled at the Crucible in 2015, breaking the previous record of 83 centuries set in 2009. In the third session, Bingham won six of the eight frames to move into a 14–11 lead. In the 20th frame, Bingham came close to a maximum break, potting 14 reds and 14 blacks before missing the final red. Although Murphy won four of the first five frames in the final session to draw level at 15–15, Bingham won the 64-minute 31st frame to go 16–15 in front, and then added two more frames for an 18–15 victory and his first world title. The achievement made him the oldest player to win the title since Ray Reardon in 1978. Winning the title also took him to a career high of second in the world rankings.

The final was noted for its high standard of break-building, with six century breaks and 24 more breaks over 50 in the 33 frames played.

Prize fund

The total prize money of the event was raised to £1,364,000 from the previous year's £1,214,000. 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 at Hallamshire Golf Club on 16 April 2015, one day after the end of the last qualifying round.

Qualifying

The 3 qualifying rounds took place between 8 and 15 April 2015 at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield, England. All matches were best of 19 frames.

Qualifying stage centuries

There were 83 century breaks in the qualifying stage of the World Championship:

Televised stage centuries

There were 86 century breaks in the televised stage of the World Championship. This is the highest in World Championship history, ahead of the 83 scored in 2009. For every century break made during the 17-day championship in Sheffield, the title sponsor, Betfred, was due to donate £200 to World Snooker’s official charity, the Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice. However, in line with the sponsor's declaration, the donation was rounded up to £25,000 as at least 70 centuries were achieved.

Players statistics

Age records

Whitewashes (2)