The 1994 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 1994 Embassy World Snooker Championship) was a professional

ranking A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of o ...

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

tournament that took place between 16 April and 2 May 1994 at the

Crucible Theatre The Crucible Theatre (often referred to simply as "The Crucible") is a theatre in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England which opened in 1971. Although it hosts regular theatrical performances, it is best known for hosting professional snooker's m ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

, England.

Stephen Hendry Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish professional snooker player who dominated the sport during the 1990s, becoming one of the most successful players in its history. After turning professional in 1985 at age 16, Hendry ...

won his fourth world title by defeating

Jimmy White James Warren White (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player who has won three seniors World titles. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his fluid, attacking style of play, White is the 1980 World Amateur Champion, 2009 ...

18–17 in the final. The tournament was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer

Embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...

Overview

* Two-time world champion

Alex Higgins Alexander Gordon Higgins (18 March 1949 – 24 July 2010) was a Northern Irish professional snooker player who is remembered as one of the most iconic figures in the game. Nicknamed "Hurricane Higgins" because of his fast play, he was Wor ...

qualified for the championship for the last time, losing 6–10 in the first round to

Ken Doherty Ken Doherty (born 17 September 1969) is an Irish professional snooker player, commentator and radio presenter. As an amateur, Doherty won the Irish Amateur Championship twice, the World Under-21 Amateur Championship and the World Amateur C ...

. *

Cliff Thorburn Clifford Charles Devlin Thorburn (born 16 January 1948) is a Canadian retired professional snooker player. Nicknamed "The Grinder" because of his slow, determined style of play, he won the World Snooker Championship in 1980, defeating Alex Hi ...

, another former champion making his final World Championship appearance, lost 9–10 in the first round to

Nigel Bond Nigel Bond (born 15 November 1965) is an English former professional snooker player. Bond competed on the main tour from 1989 to 2022, and was ranked within the world's top 16 players between 1992 and 1999, peaking at 5th for the 1996–97 s ...

after leading 9–2. * An 18-year-old

Ronnie O'Sullivan Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan (born 5 December 1975) is an English professional snooker player who is the current world champion and world number one. Widely recognised as one of the most talented and accomplished players in the sport's history, ...

knocked out

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

champion

Dennis Taylor Dennis Taylor (born 19 January 1949) is a Northern Irish retired professional snooker player and current commentator. He is best known for winning the 1985 World Snooker Championship, where he defeated the defending champion Steve Davis in a ...

, who was also making his final appearance at the World Championship. O'Sullivan won their first-round match 10–6, his first victory at the Crucible after losing in the first round on his debut the previous year. *

won his third consecutive world title and his fourth in five years. This achievement was all the more remarkable because he played every match after the first round with a broken elbow. * This was

's fifth consecutive final appearance, his fourth against Hendry, and his sixth overall. The match went to a deciding frame; White had a great chance to win his first World title when leading 37–24 and only needing a handful of pots to win the title but missed a off the , and Hendry to clinch the title. This was White's last appearance in a World Championship final and the closest he ever came to winning the tournament. * Earlier in the tournament, Hendry had sealed his position as world number one with a 16–9 semi-final victory over

Steve Davis Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a Sports commentator, commentator, musician, DJ, and author. He is best known for dominating professional snooker during the 1980s, when he rea ...

. This was Davis' eleventh and last appearance in a World Championship semi-final.

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below: *Winner: £180,000 *Runner-up: £110,000 *Semi-final: £55,000 *Quarter-final: £27,500 *Last 16: £15,000 *Last 32: £8,500 *Last 48: £6,000 *Last 64: £4,000 *Last 96: £1,750 *Last 128: £1,000 *Last 192: £600 *Stage one highest break: £5,000 *Stage two highest break: £15,400 *Stage two maximum break: £100,000 *Total: £1,068,000

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).

Century breaks

There were 35

century break In snooker, a century break (also century, sometimes called a ton) is a of 100 points or more, compiled in one to the table. A century break requires potting at least 25 consecutive balls, and the ability to score centuries is regarded as a m ...

s in the Championship, a joint record with the 1993 tournament. The highest break of the tournament was 143 made by

Alan McManus Alan McManus (born 21 January 1971) is a Scottish retired professional snooker player and current commentator who works for Eurosport. A mainstay of the world's top sixteen during the 1990s and 2000s, he has won two ranking events, the 1994 Du ...

. The highest break of the qualifying stage was 143 made by

Karl Payne Karl Payne is an English former professional snooker player. Career Payne turned professional in 1991. He initially had little success but broke into the top 64 of the world rankings after a good 1995/1996 season, in which he reached the las ...

. * 143, 105, 102

* 139, 102 Martin Clark * 139

* 137

Billy Snaddon Billy Snaddon (born 7 July 1969) is a Scottish former professional snooker player. He reached the World Snooker Championship first round five times, but never progressed past this stage. He spent 5 seasons ranked among the game's top 32, peaking ...

* 134, 108 Brian Morgan * 134, 101

* 133, 112

Drew Henry Drew Henry (born 24 November 1968) is a Scottish former professional snooker player, who spent five consecutive seasons of his career in the top 32 of the rankings, peaking at No. 18. Career A strong amateur, Henry won the 1988 Scottish Amateur ...

* 132

John Parrott John Stephen Parrott, (born 11 May 1964) is an English former professional snooker player and television personality. He was a familiar face on the professional snooker circuit during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, and remained within ...

* 124, 120, 120, 109, 100

* 124

Peter Ebdon Peter David Ebdon (born 27 August 1970) is an English former snooker player. The winner of the 2002 World Snooker Championship, Ebdon won nine world ranking events, placing twelfth on the all-time list of ranking tournament winners. In addit ...

* 119, 100

* 118, 100

Fergal O'Brien Fergal O'Brien (born 8 March 1972) is an Irish professional snooker player who plays on the main professional tour since 1991. Ranked within the world's top 64 players from 1994 to 2022, he has reached his highest position of 9th in the 2000� ...

* 118

Willie Thorne William Joseph Thorne (4 March 195417 June 2020) was an English professional snooker player. He won one ranking title, the 1985 Classic. He also reached the final of the 1985 UK Championship, losing 16–14 to Steve Davis after leading 13–8 ...

* 116, 112, 108, 107, 103

* 115, 107, 100

Darren Morgan Darren Morgan (born 3 May 1966) is a Welsh former professional snooker player who now competes as an amateur. Morgan won the World Amateur Championship in 1987 and played on the professional main tour from 1988 until 2006. He earned just ov ...

* 114

Dene O'Kane Dene O'Kane (born 24 February 1963) is a former professional snooker player from Auckland, New Zealand. Career O'Kane won the 1980 New Zealand Amateur Championship, and represented New Zealand at the 1982 IBSF World Snooker Championship, winn ...

* 100

James Wattana James Wattana (; born January 17, 1970, as วัฒนา ภู่โอบอ้อม ''Wattana Pu-Ob-Orm'', then renamed รัชพล ภู่โอบอ้อม ''Ratchapol Pu-Ob-Orm'' in 2003) is a Thai former professional snooker pl ...

References

{{Snooker season 1993/1994

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

World Snooker Championship The World Snooker Championship is the longest-running and most prestigious tournament in professional snooker. It is also the wealthiest, with total prize money in 2022 of £2,395,000, including £500,000 for the winner. First held in 1927 Wor ...

Sports competitions in Sheffield April 1994 sports events in the United Kingdom May 1994 sports events in the United Kingdom