2015 Champion of Champions

The 2015 Champion of Champions (officially the 2015 188BET Champion of Champions) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 10 and 15 November 2015 at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, England.[1][2] It was the third staging of the tournament since it was revived in 2013. In the United Kingdom, the tournament was broadcast on ITV4.

2015 188BET Champion of Champions
Tournament information
Dates10–15 November 2015 (2015-11-10 – 2015-11-15)
VenueRicoh Arena
CityCoventry
CountryEngland
OrganisationMatchroom Sport
FormatNon-ranking event
Total prize fund£300,000
Winner's share£100,000
Highest break Neil Robertson (AUS) (144)
Final
Champion Neil Robertson (AUS)
Runner-up Mark Allen (NIR)
Score10–5
2014
2016

Ronnie O'Sullivan, who won the title in 2013 and 2014, chose not to defend his title in 2015.[3]

Neil Robertson won the tournament, defeating Mark Allen 10–5 in the final.[4]

Prize fund

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The breakdown of prize money for 2015 is shown below:[5]

  • Winner: £100,000
  • Runner-up: £50,000
  • Losing Semi-finalist: £25,000
  • Group runner-up: £10,000
  • First round losers: £7,500
  • Total: £300,000

Players

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Players qualified for the event by winning important tournaments since the previous Champion of Champions. Entry was guaranteed for the defending champion, winners of rankings events and winners the following non-rankings events: 2015 Masters, 2015 Championship League, 2015 World Grand Prix, 2015 Players Championship Grand Final and 2015 World Cup.[6] Remaining places were then allocated to winners of European Tour events (in the order they were played) and then, if required, to winners of Asian Tour events and then, winners of the 2015 Six-red World Championship, 2015 Snooker Shoot-Out and 2015 World Seniors Championship.[7]

The following players qualified for the tournament:[8][9]

Seed Player Qualified as Ref.
w/d   Ronnie O'Sullivan Winner of 2014 Champion of Champions and 2014 UK Championship [10]
2   Mark Selby Winner of 2015 German Masters and 2015 China Open [11]
3   Stuart Bingham Winner of 2015 World Snooker Championship and 2015 Championship League [12]
4   Neil Robertson Winner of 2015 Gdynia Open [13]
5   Shaun Murphy Winner of 2015 Masters and 2014 Ruhr Open [14]
6   Judd Trump Winner of 2015 World Grand Prix [15]
7   Barry Hawkins Winner of 2015 Riga Open [16]
8   Joe Perry Winner of 2015 Players Championship Grand Final [17]
1[18]   John Higgins Winner of 2015 Welsh Open, 2015 Australian Goldfields Open, and 2015 International Championship [19]
  Mark Allen Winner of 2015 Bulgarian Open [20]
  Stephen Maguire Winner of 2014 Lisbon Open [21]
  Michael White Winner of 2015 Indian Open [22]
  Kyren Wilson Winner of 2015 Shanghai Masters [23]
  Ali Carter Winner of 2015 Paul Hunter Classic [24]
  Rory McLeod Winner of 2015 Ruhr Open [25]
  Zhou Yuelong Winner of 2015 World Cup [26]
  Yan Bingtao Winner of 2015 World Cup [27]

Eight players were seeded. Seedings were determined in early October, before defending champion and top seed Ronnie O'Sullivan withdrew from the event.[28] Other seeds were based on the latest world rankings (revision 3).[9] Later in October, John Higgins was chosen as the final seed, being the highest ranked player who had then qualified and wasn't already seeded.[18] He replaced O'Sullivan in the draw, taking the position allocated for the top seed.[29] Mark Allen was ranked higher than Higgins in these rankings (revision 3) but hadn't qualified at that time.

Main draw

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[30]

Group semi-finals (last 16)
Best of 7 frames
Group finals (quarter-finals)
Best of 11 frames
Semi-finals
Best of 11 frames
Final
Best of 19 frames
            
1   John Higgins 4
  Ali Carter 2
1   John Higgins 5
Group 1 (11 November)
8   Joe Perry 6
8   Joe Perry 4
  Michael White 2
8   Joe Perry 4
4   Neil Robertson 6
5   Shaun Murphy 2
  Yan Bingtao 4
  Yan Bingtao 3
Group 4 (12 November)
4   Neil Robertson 6
4   Neil Robertson 4
  Rory McLeod 0
4   Neil Robertson 10
  Mark Allen 5
3   Stuart Bingham 3
  Zhou Yuelong 4
  Zhou Yuelong 3
Group 3 (10 November)
    Kyren Wilson 6
6   Judd Trump 2
  Kyren Wilson 4
  Kyren Wilson 3
    Mark Allen 6
7   Barry Hawkins 2
  Mark Allen 4
  Mark Allen 6
Group 2 (13 November)
    Stephen Maguire 2
2   Mark Selby 1
  Stephen Maguire 4

Final

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Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee: Paul Collier.
Ricoh Arena, Coventry, England, 15 November 2015.
Neil Robertson (4)
  Australia
10–5 Mark Allen
  Northern Ireland
Afternoon: 63–35, 20–107 (103), 97–6 (53), 133–0 (114), 69–20 (69), 45–57, 69–44 (54), 5–81 (60), 75–25 (71)
Evening: 86–0 (60), 76–35, 55–65 (Robertson 54), 0–112 (112), 46–38, 56–24
114 Highest break 112
1 Century breaks 2
7 50+ breaks 3

Century breaks

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Total: 14 [31]

References

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  1. ^ "Champion of Champions Snooker 2015". Archived from the original on 28 October 2015. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  2. ^ "188BET to sponsor Champion of Champions". worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 2 November 2015. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
  3. ^ "Ronnie O'Sullivan will not defend Champion of Champions title". BBC Sport. 12 October 2015. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  4. ^ "Champion of Champions: Neil Robertson beats Mark Allen". BBC Sport. 15 November 2015. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  5. ^ "Prize Fund". Champion of Champions Snooker. Archived from the original on 13 December 2015. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  6. ^ "McLeod Confirmed For Champion of Champions". WPBSA. 12 October 2015.
  7. ^ "15 Players Already Guaranteed 2015 Invite". Champion of Champions Snooker. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  8. ^ "Players". Champion of Champions Snooker. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  9. ^ a b "Champion of Champions Group Line-Ups Announced". Champion of Champions Snooker. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  10. ^ "Ronnie O'Sullivan". Champion of Champions Snooker. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  11. ^ "Mark Selby". Champion of Champions Snooker. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  12. ^ "Stuart Bingham". Champion of Champions Snooker. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  13. ^ "Neil Robertson". Champion of Champions Snooker. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  14. ^ "Shaun Murphy". Champion of Champions Snooker. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  15. ^ "Judd Trump". Champion of Champions Snooker. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  16. ^ "Barry Hawkins". Champion of Champions Snooker. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  17. ^ "Joe Perry". Champion of Champions Snooker. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  18. ^ a b "188BET Champion Of Champions Group Draw Announced". Champion of Champions Snooker. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  19. ^ "John Higgins". Champion of Champions Snooker. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  20. ^ "Mark Allen". Champion of Champions Snooker. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
  21. ^ "Stephen Maguire". Champion of Champions Snooker. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  22. ^ "Michael White". Champion of Champions Snooker. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  23. ^ "Kyren Wilson". Champion of Champions Snooker. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  24. ^ "Ali Carter". Champion of Champions Snooker. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  25. ^ "Rory McLeod". Champion of Champions Snooker. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  26. ^ "Zhou Yuelong". Champion of Champions Snooker. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  27. ^ "Yan Bingtao". Champion of Champions Snooker. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  28. ^ Ronnie O'Sullivan will not defend Champion of Champions title
  29. ^ "Higgins To Be Seeded At Champion of Champions". Champion of Champions Snooker. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  30. ^ "Fixtures & Results". Champion of Champions Snooker. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  31. ^ "Champion of Champions: century breaks". World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Archived from the original on 12 November 2015. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
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