The 2021 UK Championship (officially the 2021 Cazoo UK Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 23 November to 5 December 2021 at the York Barbican, in York, England. The event was the first Triple Crown and fifth ranking event of the 2021–22 snooker season. The tournament featured a prize fund of £1,009,000, with the winner receiving £200,000. It was sponsored by car retail company Cazoo and broadcast in the UK by the BBC and Eurosport.
Neil Robertson was the defending champion, having defeated Judd Trump 10–9 in the 2020 final, but he lost 2–6 in the first round to amateur John Astley. Many other top seeds exited the tournament in the early rounds, with 11 of the world's top 13 ranked players eliminated before the last-16 stage. For the first time in the tournament's history, no top-16 player reached the final, which was contested between China's Zhao Xintong and Belgium's Luca Brecel, both of whom made their first appearances in a Triple Crown final. Zhao won the event with a 10–5 victory in the final to claim his first ranking title. The event featured 119 century breaks, with Gary Wilson making the highest, his fourth career maximum break, in his first-round match against Ian Burns.
Aged 24, Zhao became the youngest winner of the UK Championship since Trump in 2011. He became the fourth non-British winner in the tournament's history, after Ireland's Patsy Fagan, China's Ding Junhui, and Australia's Robertson. He also became the fourth player from mainland China to win a ranking title, after Ding, Liang Wenbo and Yan Bingtao. His win enabled him to enter the top 16 for the first time and secure a place in the second Triple Crown event of the season, the 2022 Masters.
This edition of the tournament was the last to be played under the flat-128 draw format. From the following edition, the tournament reverted to a tiered draw format, with the top 16 being seeded through to the venue, with all others playing a World Championship-style qualifying event prior to the main stages.
All matches other than the final were held as the best-of-11 frames.[13] In the first round, defending champion Neil Robertson lost 2–6 to amateur player John Astley, but later revealed that he had been diagnosed with pulsatile tinnitus and would have withdrawn from the tournament regardless.[14]Shaun Murphy, the sixth seed, lost 5–6 to another amateur player Si Jiahui, and made comments afterward on BBC Radio 5 Live suggesting that amateur players should not be permitted to compete in professional events.[15] Robertson, Mark Williams and Mark Selby agreed with Murphy's comments,[16][17] although the World Snooker Tour stated that giving amateurs the opportunity to compete in professional tournaments was a vital aspect of their development,[18] and its chairman Steve Dawson stated that the drama caused by amateur players beating elite professionals had been "great for the sport".[19] Critics on social media noted the irony that Murphy himself had attempted to qualify for golf's 2019 Open Championship as an amateur competitor.[20]Thepchaiya Un-Nooh compiled five century breaks while defeating Stephen Hendry 6–1 in the first round, becoming only the fourth player after Fergal O'Brien, Trump, and Matthew Selt to make that many in a best-of-11 match.[21]
Reigning world champion Selby (seeded 2), Williams (9), Ding Junhui (10), and reigning Masters champion Yan Bingtao (12) all lost in the last 64. Selby trailed world number 63 Hossein Vafaei 0–5, but won the next two frames before Vafaei fluked a respotted black in frame eight to win the match 6–2.[22] Williams led world number 56 Anthony Hamilton 3–0, but lost the match 5–6, after which he apologised for falling asleep during the sixth frame, stating he had been feeling unwell following a case of COVID-19.[23] Ding lost 3–6 to world number 55 Sam Craigie, guaranteeing that he would drop out of the top 16 after the tournament and be ineligible to compete in the Masters for the first time since 2006.[24][25] After Craigie potted the final pink in frame eight, referee Maike Kesseler awarded him the frame for a 5–3 lead while the cue ball was still in motion. Craigie then placed his cue on the table and the cue ball collided with it.[26] Speaking for the BBC studio, pundit Ken Doherty argued that the referee should have called a foul, respotted the pink, and given Ding the opportunity to come back to the table and attempt to level the match at 4–4; however, the frame had been awarded to Craigie prematurely. Speaking on Eurosport, pundit Alan McManus also criticised Kesseler for awarding the frame before the cue ball had come to rest.[27] Yan lost 3–6 to world number 53 Ben Woollaston.[28]
Five more seeded players exited in the round of 32. Third seed Trump, the previous year's runner-up, suffered a shock 3–6 defeat to world number 35 Selt.[29]John Higgins (7) and Mark Allen (11) fell victim to comebacks by their opponents, with Higgins losing 5–6 to Zhao Xintong after leading 5–3,[30] and Allen losing 5–6 to David Gilbert after leading 5–2.[31]Stephen Maguire (8) was whitewashed 0–6 by world number 40 Luca Brecel,[32] while Stuart Bingham (13) lost 5–6 to world number 45 Noppon Saengkham, despite coming back from 0–5 behind to force a deciding frame .[33] Eleven of the world's top-13-ranked players were eliminated before the last-16 stage of the tournament.[34] Overall, just five seeded players reached the last 16: Ronnie O'Sullivan (4), Kyren Wilson (5), Barry Hawkins (14), Jack Lisowski (15), and Anthony McGill (16). All five seeds progressed to the quarter-finals, along with Zhao, Brecel, and world number 102 Andy Hicks.[13]
Zhao Xintong won the first ranking event of his career, defeating Luca Brecel 10–5 in the final.
In the quarter-finals, Wilson defeated seven-time champion O'Sullivan. During their match, O'Sullivan repeatedly complained to referee Jan Verhaas about audience members distracting him as they entered and exited the auditorium, and interrupted his breaks to sit in his chair for several minutes at a time while the crowd settled down.[35] He also requested that a photographer be removed from the arena floor.[36] O'Sullivan came from 3–5 behind to level the match, but Wilson won the deciding frame for a 6–5 victory.[37] The other quarter-finals were more one-sided as Brecel defeated McGill 6–2, Zhao won six consecutive frames to beat Lisowski 6–2, and Hawkins defeated Hicks 6–1.[37][38] In the first semi-final, Brecel defeated Wilson 6–4, compiling four century breaks and three other breaks over 50, to become the first player from continental Europe to reach a Triple Crown final.[39][40] In the second semi-final, Zhao defeated Hawkins 6–1, making a century break and an additional five breaks over 70, to reach his first ranking final.[41]
The final was played on 5 December 2021 between Brecel and Zhao as the best-of-19 frames held over two sessions .[42] It was the first in the tournament's history not to feature a player in the top 16 in the world rankings, and the second not to feature a player from the United Kingdom (Australian Robertson defeated Chinese player Liang Wenbo in the 2015 final). Zhao led 5–3 after the afternoon session, and then won five of the seven frames played in the evening session to defeat Brecel 10–5 and win the first ranking title of his career. Zhao became the tournament's fourth non-British winner, after Ireland's Patsy Fagan, China's Ding, and Australia's Robertson. He also became the fourth player from mainland China to win a ranking title, after Ding, Liang, and Yan.[43] He moved up from 26th to ninth in the world rankings, which secured his place in the 2022 Masters in January. As runner-up, Brecel moved up the rankings from 40th to 18th.[44]
Tournament draw
The draw for the event is shown below. Players in bold denote match winners.[45]
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Gary Wilson (ENG) (147)
Zhao Xintong (CHN)
Luca Brecel (BEL)
