2002 World Snooker Championship

Snooker tournament, held April/May 2002
the snooker tournament

The 2002 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 2002 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 20 April to 6 May 2002 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the final ranking event of the 2001–02 snooker season. This was the 26th consecutive year that the World Snooker Championship had been held at the Crucible, marking the 25th anniversary of the first staging of the event at this venue. The championship was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy. Peter Ebdon won his only world title by defeating seven time winner Stephen Hendry 18–17 in the final. Ebdon defeated Matthew Stevens 17–16 in the semi finals, and Hendry defeated the defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 17–13 to reach the final. This was Hendry's ninth and last appearance in a World Championship final. There were 65 century breaks during the tournament. The highest break of the tournament was by Stevens, who achieved 145 in his quarter final match. Hendry made 16 centuries during the event, a record for any individual tournament, equalled by Mark Williams in 2022. A total prize fund of £1,615,770 was awarded at the event, the winner receiving £260,000

The World Snooker Championship is the official world championship of the game of professional snooker, organised by World Snooker. Founded in the late 19th century by British Army soldiers stationed in India, the sport was popular in the British Isles. The championship featured 32 professional players competing in one on one snooker matches in a single elimination format, each played over several The 32 competitors in the main tournament were selected using a combination of the top players in the world snooker rankings and a pre tournament qualification stage. Joe Davis won the first World Championship in 1927, the final match being held in Camkin's Hall, Birmingham, England. Since 1977, the event has been held in the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England.

The first round was played as the best of 19 frames matches, held over two sessions. The defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan's opening match against Drew Henry was delayed for 25 minutes due to a problem with the scoreboard. The first six were shared, but from 3–3 O'Sullivan won six in a row to lead 9–3, and won the match at 10–5. Quinten Hann became the first Australian player to reach the second round since Eddie Charlton in 1989. Hann, a WEPF World Eightball Championship winner, had smashed the pack of reds open when breaking off in the sixth frame, from which Paul Hunter made a 77 break and took the frame. An uncommon shot, commentator Dennis Taylor described it as "bordering on ungentlemanly conduct". Seven time winner Stephen Hendry recorded a break of 130 in frame three of his match with Shaun Murphy and led 6–3 at the end of their first session. He won the last frame with a break of 111 as he completed a 10–4 victory. James Wattana won only one frame of his match against John Higgins. Higgins made breaks of 109, 136 and 116 in winning 10–1. Peter Ebdon led Michael Judge 5–4 at the end of their first session then took five frames in a row to win 10–4. Dominic Dale, who had been ill with food poisoning in the days before his match with Jimmy White, accused White of making a , pretended to go to sleep in his chair during the final frame, and after losing 2–10, snapped his own and threw it out of his dressing room window. This match and the contest between Hunter and Hann which were being played simultaneously, were interrupted by a streaker wearing a Sven Göran Eriksson mask.

The second round featured matches played as the best of 25 frames held over up to three sessions. O'Sullivan defeated Robert Milkins 13–2 in only two sessions. When the third session was scheduled to be played O'Sullivan visited a chiropractor. O'Sullivan said "I've got an imbalance in my body and I find it hard to walk, among other things." Doherty won eight frames in a row to go from 3–7 behind to 11–7 ahead against Mark King. King forced the match to a decider, which was won by Doherty 13–12. Higgins notched up five century breaks and defeated Dott 13–2. Ebdon and Joe Perry shared the frames in their first session and tied 4–4. Ebdon won seven of the next eight frames to lead 11–5 after the second session, and later won 13–7. White played Matthew Stevens and lost 3–13 with a In the eighth and final frame in the first session, White had missed a on the , and as the returned towards him, hit it with such force that both balls were both forced off the table. World number one Mark Williams was defeated 9–13 by world number 19 Anthony Hamilton. Williams commented that, despite being ranked number one in the world, his performances were not good enough: "I'm sick with the way I performed. I don't enjoy playing that bad but I seem to play like that fairly often. I don't know what it is."

The quarter finals were played as best of 25 frames matches, held over three sessions. During his second session match again Lee, O'Sullivan missed a shot on the , throwing his cue stick in the air in frustration. He was unable to catch it, damaging the table, which had to be fixed before the next session. With the scores tied at 10 10, O'Sullivan made breaks of 83, 102 and 113 to win the match 13–10. Ebdon commented that he preferred the longer frame matches and cited his physical condition as having prepared him well for the match.