2017 World Snooker Championship 2017 World Snooker Championship The 2017 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 2017 Betfred World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 15 April to 1 May 2017 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 19th and final ranking event of the 2016/2017 season. The tournament was the 40th anniversary of the World Championships at the Crucible and was broadcast in Europe by the BBC and Eurosport. Defending champion Mark Selby retained his title, beating John Higgins 18–15 in the final, despite falling to 4–10 behind
Mark Selby second of the season after Robertson), and also the twelfth player to win the World and UK Championship double in their career. In winning the world title, Selby also retook the world number one spot. In the first ranking event of the season, the Wuxi Classic, Selby lost 3–5 to Liang Wenbo in the last 32. He won the minor-ranking Riga Open, defeating Mark Allen 4–3 in the final, but lost 5–6 to Allen in the semi-final of the ranking Shanghai Masters. He suffered a surprise early exit in the last 128 of the ranking International Championship when 19-year-old tour