lead 11–7 and he then won the next three frames to lead 14–7. Carter won the next three frames, including a century break, before O'Sullivan won the final frame of the session to lead 15–10. Only four frames were played in the final session, as O'Sullivan won three of them to complete a 18–11 victory. This was O'Sullivan's fourth championship, and was the oldest person to win the event since Dennis Taylor in 1985. O'Sullivan praised the work of Steve Peters, his sports psychologist, for the victory, saying: "I wouldn't have been playing if it wasn't for Steve... I've stuck in there. I've had to face things that I didn't want to face." Carter would comment that his opponent was "the better man", but that he was disappointed to lose. This was the twelfth meeting between the pair in ranking competitions, with O'Sullivan winning all of them. Carter would eventually defeat O'Sullivan at the event in the second round of the 2018 World Snooker Championship. After the event, O'Sullivan announced he would take a six months sabbatical from the sport; however, he only played one competitive match before the following year's event, which he also won. 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). The draw for the first round took place on 16 April 2012, one day after the qualifying, and was broadcast live by Talksport. Qualification draw Preliminary qualifying The preliminary qualifying rounds for the tournament were for WPBSA members not on the Main Tour and took place on 5 April 2012 at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield. Round 1 Round 2 Qualifying The qualifying rounds 1–4 for the tournament that took place between 6 and 12 April 2012 at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. The final round of qualifying took place between 14 and 15 April 2012 at the same venue. Robert Milkins made the 87th official maximum break during his round four qualifying match against Xiao Guodong on 11 April 2012. This was the second maximum break of Milkins' career. Round 1 Rounds 2–5 Century breaks Main stage centuries A total of 71 century breaks were made during the main stage of the World Championship. For every century break that was made during the 17-day championship in Sheffield, the title