Ronnie O'Sullivan vs Ali Carter | Full HD | Final Snooker World Championship 2012 | Session 2 The 2012 Betfred.com World Snooker Championship was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place from 21 April to 7 May 2012 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 75th edition of the event,[1] and the last ranking event of the 2011/2012 season.[2] Ronnie O'Sullivan won his fourth world title by defeating Ali Carter 18–11 in the final. John Higgins, the defending champion,[3] lost 4–13 to Stephen Hendry in the second round.[4] Aged 36, and just 55 days older than Dennis Taylor when winning the title in 1985, O'Sullivan became the oldest world champion since 45-year-old Ray Reardon in 1978.[5] On the opening day of the televised stage Hendry made the 88th official maximum break, his third at the Crucible and the 11th of his career.[6] He announced his retirement from professional snooker following his loss to Stephen Maguire in the quarter-finals. Debutants at the Crucible were Jamie Jones,[8] Cao Yupeng,[9] and Luca Brecel.[10][11][12] It was also the first time that Cao and Brecel qualified for the televised stage of a ranking event.[9][10] Cao and Jones advanced to the second round by defeating Mark Allen 10–6 and Shaun Murphy 10–8 respectively,[13] whilst Brecel lost 5–10 against Stephen Maguire.[14] Brecel became the youngest player ever to compete at the Crucible, at the age of 17 years and 45 days.[14][15][16][17] He was also the first Belgian to play at the Crucible.[10] Five Asian players competed in the first round, which is a Crucible record.[16] Four were from China and one from Hong Kong.[18] Mark Williams stated on Twitter before the championship, that he hated the Crucible and wished that the tournament was played in China.[19] Williams was subsequently booed as he was announced to the crowd before his opening match.[20] For this comment he was later fined a total of £4,000.[21] Stephen Hendry made the 10th maximum break at the Crucible during his first round match with Stuart Bingham. This was the 88th official maximum break. With this he equalled two records of O'Sullivan: the most official maximum breaks in professional snooker with eleven, and the most at the venue with three.[6][22][23] Hendry won the match 10–4.[24] Zhu Ying became the first Chinese person to referee a match at the Crucible by officiating the match between Hendry and Bingham.[23] Neil Robertson became the fourth player to make three consecutive century breaks at the World Championship, after O'Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Selby.[25] Mark Allen, following his first-round defeat by Cao Yupeng, accused his opponent of cheating. Allen claimed that Cao had not admit to a push shot at 5–4. However, he also conceded that the Chinese player had outplayed him during the match.[26] World Snooker decided to start disciplinary action against Allen,[27] who later admitted having gone too far.[28] He was later fined a total of £11,000, and warned he would be suspended from the tour for three months if he breaches the rules again in the next six months. Allen was also ordered to undergo media training.[29] Ding Junhui created more controversy after his defeat to Ryan Day. Ding said that the table conditions were not right and complained about spectators being disruptive during the match.[20] He was later fined £250, and warned by the chairman of the Disciplinary Committee for swearing during the live press conference.[30] Andrew Higginson and David Gilbert reached the second round of the World Championship for the first time in their respective careers. Higginson defeated Stephen Lee 10–6, and Gilbert defeated Martin Gould 10–8.[31][32] Eight out of the sixteen seeded players were beaten in the first round. Bingham, Graeme Dott, Murphy, Lee, Gould, Ding Junhui, Allen and Selby all lost their places in the tournament. This marked the most top 16 players to suffer defeat in the first round since 1992.[33]

• published: 11 Jan 2015
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