The first World Snooker Championship final took place in 1927 at Camkin's Hall in Birmingham, England, and was won by Joe Davis.^[1] Since 1977 the tournament has been held annually at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England.^[2] The 2004 event marked the 28th consecutive year that the tournament was held at the Crucible, and the 36th successive year that the World Championship was contested through the modern knockout format.^[3][4][5] Scottish player Stephen Hendry had been the most successful participant at the World Championship in the modern era, having won the title seven times.^[6] Welsh player Mark Williams won his second world title at the 2003 championship, defeating Irish player Ken Doherty 18–16 in the final, for which he received a £270,000 top prize from a total prize fund of £1,682,900. Organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, the 2004 tournament was sponsored by cigarette company Embassy, which sponsored the event from 1976 to 2005.

Format edit

The 2004 World Snooker Championship took place from 17 April to 3 May 2004, as the last of eight ranking events in the 2003–04 snooker season. The event featured a 32-player main draw, preceded by a qualifying tournament that was held at Pontins between 10 and 20 February 2004. The qualifiers were played over six rounds, higher-ranked players being seeded and given byes to the later rounds.^[7] All of the rounds were played as the best of 19 frames.^[7]

The top 16 players in the latest snooker world rankings automatically qualified for the main draw as seeded players. Defending champion Williams was automatically seeded first overall. The remaining 15 seeds were allocated based on the latest world rankings. Matches in the first round of the main draw were played as the best of 19 frames, second-round matches and quarter-finals played as the best of 25 frames, and the semi-finals as the best of 33 frames.^[8] The final was played over two days as a best-of-35-frames match.^[8] Reaching the first round of the tournament's main stage were 17 players from England, six from Scotland, five from Wales, and one each from Ireland, Thailand, Australia and Northern Ireland.^[8]

Prize fund edit

The winner of the event received £250,000 from a total fund of £1,378,920.^[9] The breakdown of prize money is shown below:^[9][10][11]

Main stage edit

First round edit

The first round was played between 17 and 22 April as the best of 19 frames. Williams faced Dominic Dale.^[12] The defending champion, who became a father the day before the match was played, earned a 6–3 lead in the first session, with five breaks over 50, including a century break of 105 in the second frame.^[12] Coming back for the second and final session, Dale responded and won three consecutive frames to draw level at 7–7.^[12] Williams, however, did the same and clinched victory with the last three frames, which included a half-century.^[12] "It's not the best preparation you can have, but if you're happy off the table you can carry that over," commented the two-time world champion after the match with regard to his fatherhood.^[12]

Six seeded players – Stephen Lee, Quinten Hann, Steve Davis, Peter Ebdon, Ken Doherty and Jimmy White – lost in the first round. Although Lee fell 3–6 behind Lee Walker, he managed to win three of the first four frames of the evening session to reduce the gap to a single one.^[13] Walker, nonetheless, clinched the twelfth frame, which lasted 53 minutes, and ended up winning the match 10–7.^[13] Lee claimed afterwards that the defeat was the summary of "a terrible season" for him.^[13] Andy Hicks advanced into the second round by beating Hann 4–10.^[14] Having already been warned for his language by referee Lawrie Annandale in the eleventh frame, he confronted his rival once the match had ended and he admitted to having told him "You're short, bald and always will be, and can have me outside whenever you want".^[14] Hicks pointed out to him that he was likely to drop out of the top 16 as a result of the loss.^[14][15] Six-time champion Davis lost to Anthony Hamilton 7–10.^[16] Doherty, 1997 winner, was beaten by two-time semi-finalist Joe Swail 6–10.^[17] Doherty's defeat was the first time he had lost in round one since 1995,^[17] and had since been champion once, finalist twice and three times a quarter-finalist. Ebdon played Ian McCulloch,^[18] who was making his third-ever appearance at the Crucible, having previously qualified for the 1999 and 2003 events. The first session, which featured a 48-minutes-long frame, was shared at 4–4, and the balance was not broken after eight more frames, with a scoreboard of 8–8.^[18] McCulloch, whose safety and matchplay were praised by his rival, went on to win two frames on the trot and sealed the first Crucible victory in his career.^[18] In qualifying for this event, Barry Pinches, who had made his debut at the Crucible in 1991,^[19] set the record for the biggest gap between the first two Crucible appearances.^{[citation needed]} He faced White – recent European Open runner-up and Players Championship winner – in a match which overran and had to be completed after other matches.^[20] A 10–8 victory meant that Pinches would be amongst the last 16 standing for the first time in his career.^[20]

Ryan Day and Stephen Maguire were the only debutants at the Crucible this year, and both lost in round one. Day, who became the first ever player to make three centuries on his debut at the World Championship,^[21] put himself 9–7 ahead with breaks of 111, 68, 54, 128, 60, 112, 71 and 57, but 1998 champion John Higgins forced a decider with a 68 and took it with a result of 68–50.^[22] Maguire, who was 23 and the youngest of the 32 players who made it to this stage of the tournament, reached the main draw after a season in which he had won his first ranking tournament defeating White in the European Open final, and had also been runner-up of the British Open and champion of the UK Championship, with a 10–1 victory against David Gray. Facing 2001 champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in the first round, he had a chance to take a 4–2 lead, but he would end up losing 6–10 in a match that featured a combined three centuries by both players.^[23] O'Sullivan conceded a frame while he could still mathematically win it and also made some obscene gestures throughout the match.^[24] Chris Small was 1–7 down to fellow Scotsman Alan McManus when he was forced to retire from the match due to pain from a degenerative spinal disease,^[25] a condition which would later force him to retire from the game permanently.^[26] McManus said after the match that he was "dumbstruck" by his rival pulling out.^[25] Ali Carter, taking part in his second consecutive first-round match of the World Championship after having made his debut the previous season, faced David Gray, who overcame a "nightmare start" and made two consecutive half-centuries in the last two frames to secure victory with a result of 10–7.^[27]

Joe Perry and Robert Milkins, who were playing in the main stage for the fourth and third time respectively, faced each other. Although Perry came out 6–3 on top at the end of the first session, Milkins reduced the deficit to two frames.^[28] Perry managed then to secure three scrappy frames on the spin to put himself one away from victory at 9–4.^[28] Milkins, however, replied with breaks of up to 51 and 65, and Perry said he was beginning to "worry" when it got to 9–7, but managed to close out the match.^[28] In a tactical match, Matthew Stevens, finalist in 2000, overcame a two-frame deficit against Thai player James Wattana and won the last five frames to advance into the second round.^[29] Paul Hunter, who had lost the Players Championship final against White two weeks earlier, took a 5–4 lead against 1991 world champion John Parrott, who could have levelled the match at 7 each, but missed a pot.^[30] Seven-time champion Stephen Hendry raced into an 8–1 lead against Stuart Pettman in the first session, and wrapped up the match with two more frames once the match was resumed, with a 117 century.^[31] In a match that only featured six breaks over fifty, Graeme Dott defeated Mark King in the decider.^[32] "It was actually getting embarrassing how bad the game was", he said afterwards.^[32]

Second round edit

The second round of the event was played as the best of 25 frames, held over three sessions, between 22 and 26 April. Pinches, playing in this stage of the tournament for the first time, led Hendry 11–9 before losing 12–13.^[33] Hendry regarded the match as one of the toughest "battles" he had had to endure at the Crucible.^[33] Hunter and Stevens met in the last 16 for the second consecutive year.^[34] Stevens avenged his 6–13 defeat the previous year, coming from behind in the final frames to win a close match.^[34] Hunter found himself two frames in front with only three to play at 12–10 before missing a pink ball in the 23rd frame which would have given him the match.^[34] Stevens took all three frames to win the match 13–12.^[34] Perry ousted defending champion Williams and made a break of 145, which would remain as the highest break of the tournament.^[35] Having manufactured a 10–6 lead, Perry lost five frames on the trot and let Williams in front for the first time in the match at 10–11.^[35] Perry put together breaks of 55, 53 and 82 to secure victory and advance into the quarter-finals of the World Championship for the first time in his career.^[35] The most one-sided match of the second round featured Walker and Gray, who took victory with a result of 13–5 and would also make his first appearance in the quarter-finals.^[36] "It was not my greatest performance", he highlighted despite the result and urged himself to score more heavily the next day.^[36]

Dott got off to a good start in his match against Higgins and established a 5–1 advantage that got reduced to 6–3 by the end of the first session.^[37] Going into the last session, Dott managed to put himself 12–7 up at one point, but Higgins fired back with breaks of 89 and 130 and won another one to reduce the deficit to only a couple of frames.^[37] Dott won the match with a 62 break, and said he had "never seen John play as badly as that".^[37] O'Sullivan faced 1995 semi-finalist Hicks,^[38] who had not managed to get past the first round of the event since that year. Scores were level going into the final session, but O'Sullivan managed to win a duel in which he compiled five century breaks.^[38] Both players conceded frames while the rival was still at the table.^[24] Hamilton, who was eyeing his third appearance in the quarter-finals after a year in which he had not managed to qualify for the Crucible, shared the first two sessions with Swail and went into the final one tied at 8–8.^[39] Swail had until that point scored half-centuries for every frame that had gone his way, but could not hold Hamilton, who sealed victory by 13–11 with breaks of 86 and 61.^[39] McManus won the first frame against McCulloch, who then took seven in a row with breaks of 106, 64, 76, 62, 113, 82 and 84, and moved within two of victory ahead of the evening session.^[40] He only needed to play three frames of that last session to wrap up the win and earn a place in the quarter-finals for the first time in his career.^[40]

Quarter-finals edit

The quarter-finals were played as the best of 25 frames, held over three sessions, on 27 and 28 April. In his match against O'Sullivan, Hamilton came from 0–2 down to level at 2–2, but eventually lost the match by 3–13.^[41] It was O'Sullivan's second consecutive win with a session to spare, having compiled centuries of 109, 106, 131 and 121 in the match,^[41] and was regarded by Clive Everton writing for The Guardian as a "performance of stunning virtuosity".^[42] Hendry edged out McCulloch also with a 13–3 result and a session to spare.^[43] In setting up a semi-final duel with O'Sullivan, he made two centuries and nine half-centuries.^[43]

Perry, contesting his first ever quarter-final, was six frames behind Stevens at the beginning of the last session at 5–11, but managed to pull back to 10–12 and said he felt he could win it.^[44] He stated, however, he was "mentally tired" after his second-round match against Williams and that he had lost the match "at the start".^[44] "It's difficult when you have a big lead like that and then someone fights back, because it really puts the pressure on you", pointed out Stevens.^[44] Dott had never reached this stage of the tournament before either, and displayed what he thought was "a rubbish game", but defeated Gray 13–7, closing out the match with a break of 62.^[45] "You watch the Crucible when it gets to one table as a kid, and wonder what it would be like to play there", he said afterwards.^[45]

Semi-finals edit

The semi-finals were played as the best of 33 frames, held over four sessions, between 29 April and 1 May. Several breaks of over eighty and ninety points and a 117 century gave O'Sullivan a clear advantage over Hendry in the two first sessions, which meant that at the end of the second one, he was 13–3 ahead.^[46] The match ended 17–4 and with a session to spare, thanks to breaks of 93 and 79 by O'Sullivan, whose victory against Hendry was the biggest ever for a semi-final of the tournament, improving Hendry's 16–4 win over Terry Griffiths in 1992.^[47]

In the other semi-final Dott faced Stevens, who had already reached this stage of the tournament on four occasions. The Scotsman displayed good safety throughout the match and although Stevens won frames 28, 29 and 30 to move one away from victory, Dott then forced a decider, which he won on the final pink ball.^[48]

Final edit

The final of the event was played on 2 and 3 May as a best-of-35-frames match, held over four sessions, between Dott and O'Sullivan. Welsh referee Paul Collier took charge of his first World Championship final. O'Sullivan (seeded third) was contesting his second World Championship final, having won his previous one in 2001 against Higgins, while it was the first one for Dott (seeded thirteenth), who had till that point reached two ranking finals – those of the 1999 Scottish Open and the 2001 British Open – but had come short to both Hendry and Higgins. Dott made a strong start to the match and compiled breaks of 71, 77, 64 and 60 to move 5–0 clear, but O'Sullivan responded with a 100-point century break and then won three more to put himself only one away from his rival at the end of the first session.^[49] In the second session, played over the afternoon, O'Sullivan won all frames save one – in which Dott compiled a 106 century – and only needed two frames and twenty minutes in the evening to seal his second world title.^[49]

O'Sullivan won the match 18–8, the biggest margin in a World final since Hendry's 18–5 victory over White in 1993^[49] and the fourth largest in the history of the tournament, subsequently equalled by himself against Carter in 2008, and Kyren Wilson in 2020.^[50] Afterwards, Dott conceded that the newly crowned champion could be regarded as "the greatest of all time" and expressed elation over having avoided losing the final with a session to spare.^[51] "It could have been worse", he stated in the post-match interview.^[51] O'Sullivan said he had felt at all times throughout the seventeen days that he would go on to win the tournament and thanked six-time world champion Ray Reardon for his advice, for he had recently begun to work alongside him on improving his overall game.^[52] He dedicated the victory to his father, who was at prison at the time, and said there was "more to come".^[52]

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).^[9][8][53]

The matches were played at Pontin's, Prestatyn Sands in between 10 and 20 February 2004.^[7]

1st Round (Best of 19 frames)

2nd Round (Best of 19 frames)

Rounds 3–6

There were 55 centuries in this year's championship. The highest break of the tournament was 145 made by Joe Perry.^[10][57][58]