After a week of qualifiers and a delayed draw we are finally ready for the World Championship to begin. This means that we have 17 wonderful days of snooker to enjoy inside the iconic Crucible Theatre in Sheffield in what promises to be the best tournament ever.
Mark Selby outlasted the field in this relentless marathon 12 months ago and he will defend his title but with the top 16 as strong as ever and a batch of qualifiers playing snooker to an amazing standard he is going to need to be at his best to keep hold of the title.
Recent Winners
2017 – Mark Selby
2016 – Mark Selby
2015 – Stuart Bingham
2014 – Mark Selby
2013 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2012 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2011 – John Higgins
2010 – Neil Robertson
2009 – John Higgins
2008 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
The Format
I’m sure there isn’t a snooker fan alive who needs to be reminded of this format but for the newcomers the first round is played over the best of 19 frames across two sessions. The second round and quarter finals are three sessions matches over the best of 25 and then we move up to four sessions for the semi-finals and the final. The semis are the first to 17 with the champion being the first to reach 18 frames on Bank Holiday Monday.
Top Quarter
As the defending champion Mark Selby is the number one seed and the headline act in this quarter. The Masters winner Mark Allen could be his second round opponent while the other seeds in this section are tough as teak too in Kyren Wilson and Shaun Murphy.
There are not many sections of the draw where the qualifiers are weak and that certainly is not the case here with Joe Perry a very good standard. He faces Mark Selby in the opening round with the other three men in the section being Liam Highfield and the Welsh duo of Matthew Stevens and Jamie Jones.
Second Quarter
It is Judd Trump who is the highest seed in this quarter but the section could be all about the beaten finalist from last year in John Higgins. He has had a tremendous season and is definitely capable of another world title. Former champion Stuart Bingham and the extremely talented Luca Brecel are the other seeds in this quarter.
I actually think this section is where the toughest group of qualifiers are housed. I say that because one of the men of the season in Jack Lisowski is here while the former semi-finalist Ricky Walden is also in this quarter. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Chris Wakelin might be debutants but they can both play a decent standard.
Third Quarter
Ding Junhui is the main man in this quarter in terms of the seedings and it will be interesting to see if this is the year where he becomes the first Chinese champion but if it is to be then he’ll have to come through a testing draw. Barry Hawkins will look to go one better than he has done previously while Anthony McGill and Marco Fu have both had good runs here.
The qualifier that nobody wanted to face is in this section in the form of Ryan Day. Anthony McGill is the unfortunate man to get him in the first round. Xiao Guodong, Lu Haotian and Stuart Carrington are the other three men in a quarter which has a strong Chinese flavour to it.
Bottom Quarter
The five time champion and tournament favourite Ronnie O’Sullivan is the class act in this bottom section but he is going to face a very competitive route to a sixth world title should he get that far. Mark Williams has been one of the players of the season and he goes in search of a third title from here while another former champion in Neil Robertson is here too. Ali Carter certainly doesn’t bring the standard down any.
There is a former world champion among the qualifiers in this quarter as well with Graeme Dott in here. Stephen Maguire is another of those you would file in the category of not wanting in the first round and he has drawn Ronnie O’Sullivan. Jimmy Robertson and Robert Milkins are the other two players in the draw.
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Outright Betting
I’ll have a go at a player in each half of this tournament because I think there is a bit of value with where a couple of players have landed in the draw. My main bet comes in the bottom half where Barry Hawkins will need to overcome the curse of the sixth seed but I think he has a real chance here. No sixth seed has ever won the world title but not many of them played like Hawkins did in China. The first half of the campaign was such a nonsense for Hawkins, for reasons which have been well documented, that he should still be pretty fresh heading to Sheffield.
His last five efforts in this tournament have finished final, semi-final, semi-final, quarter final and semi-final so he is someone who comes alive in April, loves the longer format matches as we saw in China earlier in the month and enjoys the Crucible. At 25/1 he’s my main bet.
Two years ago we saw a couple of qualifiers make the semi-final and one of them progressed to the final and given the quality of the qualifiers this year I wouldn’t be surprised if another goes well. I actually think Ricky Walden is a good chance here. He has made the semi-final before and looks to be over his injury troubles. Walden has made a quarter final and a couple of last 16s but deciders haven’t generally been his friend however over this longer distance I think he’s a runner. He made seven tons in qualifying and if that scoring stays with him he could really go deep at a huge price.
Quarter Betting
I’ll have a go at the top two quarters too. Mark Selby showed he remains the man to beat when he won the China Open earlier in the month but there are players in the top quarter who can beat him, not least Kyren Wilson who has really kicked on this season. He has made three finals this season and two more semi-finals so he is playing some really good stuff. If Murphy is still injured his part of the quarter is very open and even if he ends up playing Selby in the quarter final we saw in Beijing that he is no 6/1 to beat him. At that price I’ll take him to win the top quarter.
I’ll also take Walden to come through what looks like a really open section too. I don’t need to highlight too much more than I have above except he’s the favourite to win his first round match and he wouldn’t be a massive outsider against Judd Trump. John Higgins would be a tough one but the Scot isn’t in the quarter finals yet. At 25/1 Walden is definitely overpriced in this section.
Tips
Back B.Hawkins to win World Championship (e/w) for a 2/10 stake at 26.00 with BetVictor (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back R.Walden to win World Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 151.00 with Coral (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
WON – Back K.Wilson to win 1st Quarter for a 2/10 stake at 7.00 with Betfred
Back R.Walden to win 2nd Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Betfred
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