page_title: 2019 World Snooker Championship
section_title: Qualifying rounds
hierarchical_section_title: 2019 World Snooker Championship / Tournament summary / Qualifying rounds
caption_attribution_description: James Cahill beim Paul Hunter Classic 2016
context_page_description: The 2019 World Snooker Championship was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 20 April to 6 May 2019 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 43rd consecutive year the World Snooker Championship had been held at the Crucible, and the 20th and final ranking event of the 2018–19 snooker season. Qualifying for the tournament took place from 10 to 17 April 2019 at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. Sports betting company Betfred sponsored the event.
  The winner of the title was Judd Trump, who defeated John Higgins 18–9 in the final to claim his first World Championship. In doing so, Trump became the 11th player to win all three Triple Crown titles at least once. Defending champion Mark Williams lost 9–13 to David Gilbert in the second round of the tournament. For the first time in the history of the World Snooker Championship, an amateur player appeared at the main stage of the event—debutant James Cahill defeated world number one Ronnie O'Sullivan in the first round, before being narrowly defeated by Stephen Maguire in a second round deciding frame.
context_section_description: The top 16 seeds automatically qualified for the competition's main draw. The defending champion Mark Williams was seeded first, whilst other seeds were allocated based on the world rankings following the China Open. The remaining players competed in the preliminary qualifying rounds, and were required to win three best-of-19-frames matches to reach the main stage of the championship.
  The qualifying rounds took place at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield between 10 and 17 April 2019, with 16 players progressing to the main stage at the Crucible Theatre. A total of 128 players competed in the qualifying stage, including those tour players not automatically qualified for the main draw, as well as invited amateurs.
  James Cahill became the first amateur player ever to qualify for the Crucible main stage of the World Championship, defeating fellow amateur Michael Judge 10–6 in the third qualifying round. Seven players—the largest number since 1999—advanced through the qualifying rounds to make their debuts at the main stage of the tournament. Besides Cahill, they were Scott Donaldson, Michael Georgiou, Li Hang, Luo Honghao, Tian Pengfei and Zhao Xintong. The 2006 World Champion Graeme Dott and two-time finalist Ali Carter also successfully qualified. Marco Fu failed to reach the main draw of the competition for the first time since 2004.
caption: James Cahill became the first-ever amateur to qualify for the World Championship staged at the Crucible.
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