There is one tournament left of the snooker season and that means the leading players in the sport head to the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield for the World Championship, the 17-day marathon where legends are made.
Ronnie O’Sullivan added to his legendary status here last year when he claimed a seventh world crown and he could go out in front with eight if he can win this but a pretty strong field will be out to deny him.
Recent Winners
2022 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2021 – Mark Selby
2020 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2019 – Judd Trump
2018 – Mark Williams
2017 – Mark Selby
2016 – Mark Selby
2015 – Stuart Bingham
2014 – Mark Selby
2013 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
The Format
I’m sure everyone knows the format by now but for those who are unsure of it, it is long course snooker all the way over this 17 day marathon. The first round is the best-of-19 frames which goes up to the best-of-25 for the second round and the quarter finals. The semi-finals at the best-of-33 frames and then the four session final will see a champion crowned on the third Sunday and Monday over the best-of-35 frames. The draw was conducted on Thursday.
Top Quarter
This is a tournament where the defending champion is always the number one seed although Ronnie O’Sullivan would be it anyway as he is the world number one. He is the only man whose first round match will start and finish on the opening day of the event and could be in the second round before most of his challengers get going. O’Sullivan is seeded to meet the 2018 champion Mark Williams in the quarter final if the seeds plays out by the numbers. Luca Brecel and the last man into the field Ding Junhui are the other seeds in this quarter.
There are a number of dangerous qualifiers in the field this year and one of those is Hossein Vafaei. The Iranian is in this quarter while the former semi-finalist in this tournament in Ricky Walden is another who the seeded men would have wanted to avoid. Jimmy Robertson is a former ranking event winner but he has never won a match at the Crucible. He’ll be hoping that changes from this part of the draw. There are five debutants in the field this year and one of those is Pang Junxu, the WST Classic finalist, who completes this quarter of the draw.
Second Quarter
Shaun Murphy has surprisingly only won the world title once and it is 18 years ago that he got his hands on the trophy but having won the last two Duelbits Series events, the Players Championship and Tour Championship, he arrives in Sheffield in excellent form and heads up the second quarter. He is seeded to face Judd Trump in the last eight with Trump going in under the radar after a poor season by his standards even though he won The Masters. Jack Lisowski is yet to win a tournament but many expect his time to come. He is in this quarter as is Robert Milkins.
Anthony McGill has a good Crucible pedigree and was involved in that epic semi-final with Kyren Wilson in 2020. He has qualified for the tournament again this year and will take his chances in this quarter of the draw. It is only 14 months ago that Joe Perry won the Welsh Open and after an emotionally tough final qualifying match he is in the second quarter. Noppon Saengkham has caused the odd shock here in the past and he’s in this section of the draw, as is the debutant Si Jiahui.
Third Quarter
Mark Allen has been the best player of the season so far but most of his winning came in the opening half of the campaign and since he took down the World Grand Prix in January his form has been sketchy to say the least so he’ll need to have found something if he is to win the title for the first time. Allen could end up facing Neil Robertson in the quarter final. The Australian doesn’t have a brilliant record in this tournament and arrives here having not won an event this season for the first time in ages. Time will tell if that helps him or is a sign of where he is at. Stuart Bingham knows how to go the course and distance here having done so in 2015 while Ali Carter has twice made the final and won the German Masters earlier in the season.
I think there is a case to be made that Dave Gilbert is the qualifier that everyone wanted to avoid but the third quarter haven’t done so as this is where the former semi-finalist is housed. The other three qualifiers in this section are all debutants with the former European Masters winner Fan Zhengyi one of those. Jak Jones saw off Barry Hawkins in the final qualifying round to take his place in the draw for the first time while Wu Yize completes the line up in the third section.
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Bottom Quarter
Mark Selby heads to Sheffield in a much better frame of mind than he was in a year ago and having won the English Open and the WST Classic this season there will be plenty who fancy his chances of doing some damage from the bottom quarter of the draw. He is seeded to meet the man who is considered ideal for the Crucible in Kyren Wilson, who recently made the Tour Championship final, in the quarter final. John Higgins is no stranger to going the course and distance and he is in the bottom quarter as is the Scottish Open winner Gary Wilson.
The four qualifiers in the bottom quarter have all been in the field before with differing levels of success. Ryan Day is the most experienced of them and having won the British Open earlier in the campaign he knows he can mix it at this level. Matthew Selt is a ranking event winner but he has the daunting prospect of a first round clash with Mark Selby. Elliot Slessor has only played here in the Covid year so he’ll get the full Crucible experience this time around and local lad David Grace completes the field.
Outright Betting
I really find it hard to see beyond Mark Selby for this tournament. He has a wonderful draw and he arrives here playing some excellent stuff. He won the WST Classic where he was remarkable on the final day of that tournament and then repelled a maximum and a 16-red clearance from Ryan Day at the Tour Championship before going down to Shaun Murphy in a really good semi-final. The Selby record in this tournament is very good. He has won the title four times in the last nine years and would have been in another final in 2020 but for three of the best frames this venue has ever seen by Ronnie O’Sullivan to shut him out. We can ignore his run a year ago when he clearly wasn’t in the right frame of mind. The longer Selby is in this tournament the stronger he’ll get and at 11/2 he looks a serious bet.
If there is someone who could derail him it could be his stablemate Ali Carter who I expect to have a decent run in the third quarter. Carter won the German Masters this season and reached the final of the Players Championship as well as the last four of the WST Classic so over the last few months he has been hitting the ball very well. I expect him to overcome the challenge of Jak Jones in the opening round and then were he to have to go through Neil Robertson and Mark Allen to reach the last four I don’t think he’ll mind that. He hasn’t won the title but his overall record here is better than both of those challengers, as is his current form. He has found something under Chris Henry and is a serious big match player. I think the 40/1 quotes on him are a little too big.
Quarter Betting
I’ll keep my bets in the top half of the draw to the quarter markets because I’m going to side with a qualifier and an unheralded player. In the top quarter I liked what I saw of Ricky Walden in the qualifiers. He has had no season at all to speak about so he went to the qualifiers as fresh as a daisy and made five centuries in his two matches there. The second of his matches saw him see off Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in a Judgement Day classic. Walden has Luca Brecel in the opening round. That isn’t a gimme but Brecel has never won a match in this building and if he comes through that this quarter could easily open up. Someone would have to beat Ronnie O’Sullivan before Walden does but Ding or Hossein Vafaei could do that. Walden feels overpriced here.
In the second quarter I’ll go with Jack Lisowski. When the seeds were entered into this draw there was a lot of excitement about the potential second round clash between the good friends Judd Trump and Lisowski. That isn’t as guaranteed to happen because Trump has drawn Anthony McGill in the first round. I do expect Lisowski to see off Noppon Saengkham and he can build on a run to the quarter final a year ago which was only ended in that wonderful last eight clash with John Higgins which went to a deciding frame. Lisowski hasn’t had the season many would have expected him to this year but he has still reached the semi-final at the UK Championship and The Masters and I’ll back him to complete a Triple Crown last four hat trick with a potential quarter final opponent of Robert Milkins or Shaun Murphy, both of whom might feel the pace after a lot of high octane snooker in the last two months, or Joe Perry or Si Jiahui who I don’t see beating Lisowski.
Tips
Back M.Selby to win World Championship for a 3/10 stake at 6.50 with Betfair
Back A.Carter to win World Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with Betfair (1/2 1-2)
Back R.Walden to win 1st Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 19.00 with Boylesports
Back J.Lisowski to win 2nd Quarter for a 2/10 stake at 8.00 with Coral
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