The 2010 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2010 Betfred.com World Snooker Championship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 17 April and 3 May 2010 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. John Higgins, who entered the tournament as the defending champion, lost in the second round 11–13 against Steve Davis. In the semi-finals, Neil Robertson defeated Ali Carter 17–12 and Graeme Dott beat Mark Selby 17–14. Robertson won the final 18–13, becoming the first Australian in the modern era to win the title. The tournament was sponsored by online casino Betfred.com. Tournament summary As part of Barry Hearn’s vision for the future of the game, walk-on music for the players was introduced. It is now universally done for all players qualifying in the tournaments, although for most tournaments, it is only used in the latter stages of tournaments, due to disparate starting times for other matches in the main arena. First round Debutants at the Crucible were Tom Ford and Zhang Anda. It was also the first time that Zhang has qualified for the main event of any ranking event. Ford played against Mark Allen and Zhang against Stephen Hendry, losing 4–10 and 9–10 respectively. Leo Scullion refereed at the Crucible for the first time in his career. Steve Davis qualified for the World Championship for a record 30th and final time, spanning over five different decades since his first appearance in 1979. He defeated Mark King 10–9 in the first round, making him the oldest man since Eddie Charlton in 1989 to win a match at the Crucible. Four out of the sixteen seeded players lost their first-round matches. Mark King lost 9–10 against Steve Davis, Marco Fu lost 9–10 against Martin Gould, Peter Ebdon lost 5–10 against Graeme Dott and Ryan Day lost 8–10 against Mark Davis. Second round Steve Davis aged 52 years old defeated the defending champion John Higgins 13–11. With this he reached the quarter-finals of the World Championship for the first time since 2005, and at 52 years old became the oldest player to reach the quarter-finals since Eddie Charlton who was 53 in 1983. In the same match Higgins made his 100th century break at the Crucible, becoming only the second player after Stephen Hendry to reach this milestone. It was a break of 115 and it came in the 18th frame of the match. Meanwhile, Neil Robertson came