2003 World Snooker Championship

Embassy World Snooker Championship

Tournament information
Dates	19 April–5 May 2003
Venue	Crucible Theatre
City	Sheffield
Country	England
Organisation(s)	WPBSA
Format	Ranking event
Total prize fund	£1,682,900
Winner's share	£270,000
Highest break	Ronnie O'Sullivan (147)
Final
Champion	Mark Williams
Runner-up	Ken Doherty
Score	18–16
← 2002 2004 →

The 2003 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 2003 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 19 April and 5 May 2003 at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield.

Peter Ebdon was the defending champion, but he lost 12–13 to Paul Hunter in the quarter-finals and became another first-time champion who fell to the Crucible curse and could not defend his first World title.^[1]

Mark Williams won his second World title by defeating Ken Doherty 18–16 in the final. The tournament was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy.

Tournament summary

• Ronnie O'Sullivan's maximum break against Marco Fu in the first round was the fifth at the Crucible, and made O'Sullivan the first player to score two 147s at the venue. It was in fact the first 147 at the Crucible since O'Sullivan himself made one in 1997.^[2]
• Stephen Hendry made a 132 break in his first round match against Gary Wilkinson, and became the first player to compile 100 century breaks at the Crucible.^[3]
• During his second round match, Paul Hunter compiled the 750th century at the Crucible in frame four.^[3]
• Mark Williams lost the opening two frames of his second-round match against Quinten Hann before winning 13 in a row – a record for a single match in modern times – to triumph 13–2.^[4]
• In his quarter-final against John Higgins, Doherty won the first ten frames, before Higgins took the next seven. Doherty eventually won the match 13–8.^[5]
• In the semi-finals, Ken Doherty trailed Paul Hunter 9–15, Hunter needing only two more frames for victory. Doherty won five in a row to reduce the deficit to one frame, but Hunter then took the 30th; however, Doherty won all three remaining frames to win the match 17–16 and reach the final.^[6]
• Doherty produced a similar comeback in the final against Mark Williams, where he fell 2–10 behind before taking nine of the next ten frames to level at 11–11. He would also level the match at 12–12, 13–13, 14–14 and 16–16, before eventually losing the next two frames and the match.^[7]
• Doherty played a total of 132 frames, a modern-day record at the World Championship.^[8]

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:^[9]

• Winner: £270,000
• Runner-up: £158,000
• Semi-final: £79,000
• Quarter-final: £39,500
• Last 16: £22,000
• Last 32: £15,000
• Highest break: £22,000
• Maximum break: £147,000
• Total: £1,682,900

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).^[10][11][12]

First round

Second round

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Best of 19 frames

Best of 25 frames

Best of 25 frames

Best of 33 frames

19 April[13]

Peter Ebdon (1)

10

24, 25 & 26 April[14]

Gerard Greene

3

Peter Ebdon (1)

13

22 & 23 April[15]

Tony Drago

5

Joe Swail (16)

8

29 & 30 April[16]

Tony Drago

10

Peter Ebdon (1)

12

23 & 24 April[17]

Paul Hunter (9)

13

Paul Hunter (9)

10

27 & 28 April[18]

Ali Carter

5

Paul Hunter (9)

13

22 & 23 April[19]

Matthew Stevens (8)

6

Matthew Stevens (8)

10

1, 2 & 3 May[6]

Chris Small

3

Paul Hunter (9)

16

20 & 21 April[20]

Ken Doherty (5)

17

Ken Doherty (5)

10

26, 27 & 28[21]

Shaun Murphy

9

Ken Doherty (5)

13

20 & 21 April[22]

Graeme Dott (12)

12

Graeme Dott (12)

10

29 & 30 April[5]

Robert Milkins

4

Ken Doherty (5)

13

19 & 20 April[23]

John Higgins (4)

8

Joe Perry (13)

4

25 & 26 April[24]

Sean Storey

10

Sean Storey

7

21 & 22 April[25]

John Higgins (4)

13

John Higgins (4)

10

Ian McCulloch

7

23 & 24 April[26]

Mark Williams (3)

10

27 & 28 April[27]

Stuart Pettman

2

Mark Williams (3)

13

19 & 20 April[28]

Quinten Hann (14)

2

Quinten Hann (14)

10

29 & 30 April[29]

John Parrott

5

Mark Williams (3)

13

19 & 20 April[30]

Stephen Hendry (6)

7

Mark King (11)

5

24 & 25 April[31]

Drew Henry

10

Drew Henry

10

19 & 20 April[32]

Stephen Hendry (6)

13

Stephen Hendry (6)

10

1, 2 & 3 May[33]

Gary Wilkinson

7

Mark Williams (3)

17

21 April[34]

Stephen Lee (7)

8

Stephen Lee (7)

10

25 & 26 April[35]

Steve Davis

6

Stephen Lee (7)

13

22 & 23 April[36]

Jimmy White (10)

11

Jimmy White (10)

10

29 & 30 April[37]

James Wattana

6

Stephen Lee (7)

13

21 & 22 April[38]

Marco Fu

7

Alan McManus (15)

10

26, 27 & 28 April[39]

Nigel Bond

7

Alan McManus (15)

7

22 & 23 April[40]

Marco Fu

13

Ronnie O'Sullivan (2)

6

Marco Fu

10

Final (Best of 35 frames) Crucible Theatre, Sheffield. 4 and 5 May.[7] Referee: Jan Verhaas.[41]
Ken Doherty (5)  Ireland	16–18	Mark Williams (3)  Wales
37–60, 55–82, 97–0, 29–73, 30–86, 12–82, 30–77, 56–75, 85–24, 4–118, 1–76, 0–101, 79–0, 70–69, 0–75, 60–51, 73–10, 62–31, 128–6, 61–17, 82–49, 70–39, 41–68, 115–0, 19–62, 98–23, 0–87, 78–45, 0–121, 0–77, 68–17, 120–16, 28–96, 5–120	Century breaks: 6 (Doherty 3, Williams 3) Highest break by Doherty: 128 Highest break by Williams: 120	37–60, 55–82, 97–0, 29–73, 30–86, 12–82, 30–77, 56–75, 85–24, 4–118, 1–76, 0–101, 79–0, 70–69, 0–75, 60–51, 73–10, 62–31, 128–6, 61–17, 82–49, 70–39, 41–68, 115–0, 19–62, 98–23, 0–87, 78–45, 0–121, 0–77, 68–17, 120–16, 28–96, 5–120
Mark Williams wins the 2003 Embassy World Snooker Championship

Century breaks

There were 53 centuries in this year's championship. The highest break of the tournament was 147 made by Ronnie O'Sullivan.^{[11][42][43][44]}

References