Ebdon's greatest achievement was his 18–17 defeat of Stephen Hendry in the 2002 World Championship final, having started the tournament at odds of 33–1. He had previously reached the final of the tournament in 1996, which he lost 12–18 to Hendry, and was also runner-up at the 2006 event to Graeme Dott in which, at 7–15 down coming into the final session, Ebdon won six successive frames before Dott prevailed 18–14. In the semi-final before the final he led Marco Fu 15–9 before being pegged back to 16–16 before Ebdon took the decider, at the end of which he shed tears of relief.