2000 World Snooker Championship

Embassy World Snooker Championship

Tournament information
Dates	15 April–1 May 2000
Venue	Crucible Theatre
City	Sheffield
Country	England
Organisation(s)	WPBSA
Format	Ranking event
Total prize fund	£1,460,000
Winner's share	£240,000
Highest break	Matthew Stevens (143)
Final
Champion	Mark Williams
Runner-up	Matthew Stevens
Score	18–16
← 1999 2001 →

The 2000 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 2000 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 15 April and 1 May 2000 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England.

Stephen Hendry was the defending champion, but he lost in the first round 7–10 against Stuart Bingham.

Mark Williams won his first World title by defeating fellow Welsh player Matthew Stevens 18–16 in the final.^[1] The tournament was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy.

Tournament summary

• In the final qualifying round Gary Wilkinson and Jason Ferguson set the record of the longest best-of-19-frames match at 11 hours and 38 minutes.^[2]
• Joe Swail returned to the top 16 in the snooker world rankings after reaching the semi-final against Matthew Stevens.^[3]
• The pre-tournament favourite Stephen Hendry^[4] was eliminated in the first round by Crucible debutant Stuart Bingham (10–7). Hendry and Bingham would later meet in the first round again in 2012, this time Hendry winning 10-4 and making a maximum 147 break in what was his final professional tournament.^[5]
• Swail's place in the last 16 ended Steve Davis' run in the elite top 16 – he had been in since 1980 including holding the world number one spot from 1983 to 1990.^[3][6] Davis lost 11–13 to John Higgins in the second round. He later returned to the top 16 in 2003/2004.^[6]
• Higgins made a record of 485 unanswered points in his quarter-final match against Anthony Hamilton.^[7]
• Mark Williams became only the third Welsh snooker player to win the world title after Ray Reardon and Terry Griffiths, and the first since 1979.^[8] Trailing 7–13 against fellow countryman Matthew Stevens in the final, Williams recorded a comeback to defeat Stevens 18–16 and win the title.^[9]
• John Newton refereed his first and only World final and retired from refereeing after the match.^[10] This was also the first ever all-Welsh World final and remains only one to-date.^[11]

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:^[12][13]

Winner: £240,000 Runner-up: £140,000 Semi-final: £70,000 Quarter-final: £35,000 Last 16: £19,000 Last 32: £13,000 Last 48: £10,000

Last 64: £6,325 Last 96: £3,850 Last 128: £1,050 Stage one highest break: £2,000 Stage two highest break: £20,000 Stage two maximum break: £147,000 Total: £1,460,000

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).^{[12][14][15][16][17]}

First round

Second round

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Best of 19 frames

Best of 25 frames

Best of 25 frames

Best of 33 frames

15 April

Stephen Hendry (1)

7

21 & 22 April

Stuart Bingham

10

Stuart Bingham

9

19 & 20 April

Jimmy White (16)

13

Jimmy White (16)

10

25 & 26 April

Billy Snaddon

7

Jimmy White (16)

7

17 & 18 April

Matthew Stevens (9)

13

Matthew Stevens (9)

10

23 & 24 April

Tony Drago

2

Matthew Stevens (9)

13

19 April

Alan McManus (8)

4

Alan McManus (8)

10

27, 28 & 29 April

Nigel Bond

7

Matthew Stevens (9)

17

18 April

Joe Swail

12

John Parrott (5)

10

22, 23 & 24 April

Gary Wilkinson

9

John Parrott (5)

12

15 & 16 April

Joe Swail

13

Paul Hunter (12)

6

25 & 26 April

Joe Swail

10

Joe Swail

13

16 & 17 April

Dominic Dale

9

Peter Ebdon (13)

6

20 & 21 April

Dominic Dale

10

Dominic Dale

13

16 & 17 April

David Gray

1

Ronnie O'Sullivan (4)

9

David Gray

10

15 & 16 April

Mark Williams (3)

10

20 & 21 April

John Read

4

Mark Williams (3)

13

15 & 16 April

Drew Henry

9

Mark King (14)

8

25 & 26 April

Drew Henry

10

Mark Williams (3)

13

15 & 16 April

Fergal O'Brien (11)

5

Fergal O'Brien (11)

10

21 & 22 April

Chris Small

8

Fergal O'Brien (11)

13

18 & 19 April

Stephen Lee (6)

8

Stephen Lee (6)

10

27, 28 & 29 April

Kristjan Helgason

3

Mark Williams (3)

17

17 & 18 April

John Higgins (2)

15

Ken Doherty (7)

10

22, 23 & 24 April

Darren Morgan

3

Ken Doherty (7)

12

17 April

Anthony Hamilton (10)

13

Anthony Hamilton (10)

10

25 & 26 April

Marco Fu

4

Anthony Hamilton (10)

3

18 & 19 April

John Higgins (2)

13

Steve Davis (15)

10

23 & 24 April

Graeme Dott

6

Steve Davis (15)

11

19 & 20 April

John Higgins (2)

13

John Higgins (2)

10

Dave Harold

8

Final (Best of 35 frames) Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, 30 April & 1 May 2000. Referee: John Newton[18]
Matthew Stevens (9)  Wales	16–18	Mark Williams (3)  Wales
62–50, 84–28, 33–56, 103–23, 18–65, 61–76, 0–123, 75–35, 64–24, 91–37, 59–21, 117–0, 114–7, 6–79, 73–22, 0–68, 133–0, 66–48, 0–106, 55–54, 0–81, 34–79, 46–71, 37–79, 33–77, 67–0, 6–75, 0–74, 120–16, 13–61, 66–70, 60–29, 8–76, 21–73	Century breaks: 7 (Stevens 5, Williams 2) Highest break by Stevens: 120 Highest break by Williams: 123	62–50, 84–28, 33–56, 103–23, 18–65, 61–76, 0–123, 75–35, 64–24, 91–37, 59–21, 117–0, 114–7, 6–79, 73–22, 0–68, 133–0, 66–48, 0–106, 55–54, 0–81, 34–79, 46–71, 37–79, 33–77, 67–0, 6–75, 0–74, 120–16, 13–61, 66–70, 60–29, 8–76, 21–73
Mark Williams wins the 2000 Embassy World Snooker Championship

Century breaks

There were 54 centuries in the Championship.^[19][20] The highest breaks were 143 made by Matthew Stevens in the televised stage and Nick Dyson in the qualifying stage.^[12]

143, 120, 114, 114, 112, 111, 110, 109, 108, 104, 103 Matthew Stevens 141, 141, 137, 136, 135, 129, 127, 126, 109, 108, 108, 103 John Higgins 141, 103, 102 Joe Swail 136, 123, 115, 102, 101 Ronnie O'Sullivan 133 Drew Henry 132 Stuart Bingham 126, 102 Stephen Lee

123, 112, 106, 105, 101, 101 Mark Williams 120, 119, 103, 101, 100 Dominic Dale 118, 106, 104, 101 Ken Doherty 106 Stephen Hendry 102 John Parrott 101 Chris Small 100 Peter Ebdon

References

1. "Williams wins epic snooker final". BBC News. 1 May 2000. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
2. Turner, Chris. "On this Week: Birth of the Hurricane". Eurosport UK. Archived from the original on 2 June 2011. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
3. Baker, Steven. "Boxing boy Williams knuckles down to become the top shot". Daily Mail on HighBeam Research. Retrieved 10 May 2012. (subscription required)
4. "Hendry leads seven Scots into the theatre of dreams". The Herald on HighBeam Research. Retrieved 10 May 2012. (subscription required)
5. Graham, Hugh. "End of the world for Hendry as Bingham's debut rocks the Crucible". The Sunday Herald on HighBeam Research. Retrieved 10 May 2012. (subscription required)
6. "Ranking History". snooker.org. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
7. "World Snooker Championship Trivia". Embassy Snooker. Archived from the original on 4 December 2012. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
8. Turner, Chris. "World Professional Championship". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 April 2013. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
9. "Mark Williams profile". worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
10. "World comes closer to Scotland". The Herald on HighBeam Research. Retrieved 10 May 2012. (subscription required)
11. "Hall of Fame". Snooker.org. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
12. "World Snooker Championship 2000". Global Snooker. Retrieved 24 March 2011.
13. Downer, Chris (2012). Crucible Almanac. p. 130.
14. "Embassy World Championship 2000". Snooker.org. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
15. "2000 Embassy World Championship Draw". Snooker.org. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
16. "2000 World Championships Results". Snooker Database. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
17. Downer, Chris (2012). Crucible Almanac. pp. 50–51.
18. Downer, Chris (2012). Crucible Almanac. p. 143.
19. "Crucible Centuries". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 23 May 2011. Retrieved 5 October 2011.
20. Downer, Chris (2012). Crucible Almanac. p. 150.