The World Championship continues inside the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield on Wednesday when the two remaining first round matches to start get underway while the four outstanding from Tuesday conclude on a tasty looking day of snooker.
We have three sessions of snooker on Wednesday where no fewer than four world champions are on show. We have a couple of competent challengers as well so there is no reason why the quality won’t remain high on potentially dramatic day.
Day 4 Recap
We saw just two matches conclude over the course of Tuesday inside the Crucible Theatre with the first of them seeing Zak Surety becoming the first player to make four centuries on his debut at this venue but it wasn’t enough for him to progress as Ding Junhui ran out a 10-7 winner in the end. The other match to conclude saw Si Jiahui convert his 6-3 overnight lead into a 110-6 victory. Four matches played their first session on Tuesday. Shaun Murphy looked very good in opening up a 7-2 lead on Daniel Wells while Zhang Anda will lead Pang Junxu 5-3 going into their final session and Ronnie O’Sullivan will return with a 5-4 lead on Ali Carter and Judd Trump will sleep on a 6-3 lead over Zhou Yuelong.
That all meant that our first bet on the day was a winner when Surety delivered the four frames that we needed him to in order to make it to seven before he was beaten by Ding. That gave us a second winner from three concluded punts in the tournament but unfortunately it wasn’t three from four because Gilbert couldn’t really recover from the poor end to the first session and in the end he went down to Si Jiahui which was no good to us.
In Play Betting
We have four outstanding matches on Wednesday and in the morning session Shaun Murphy will look to convert his 7-2 lead over Daniel Wells which you would imagine he will do if he is cueing anything like he was in the opening session of that encounter. At the same time, the Chinese pair of Zhang Anda and Pang Junxu will resume. I was looking at getting involved in the frames in this one but we are a frame short in the first session and yet the lines haven’t really been impacted which isn’t ideal. I wouldn’t want to pick a winner because if that ends up going as close as I suspect it will then it might need a third session before it concludes.
I’m already on Ali Carter to beat Ronnie O’Sullivan but I fear that I might have missed the boat there because Carter should be in front and probably tidily in front too based on the first session. Hopefully he can still recover that situation and set up some decent returns. Judd Trump leads 6-3 in the other match but I can’t really see a turnaround taking place there so I’m going to watch the conclusion to these matches rather than get involved from a betting standpoint.
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Luca Brecel vs Ryan Day (Wednesday 2.30pm & Thursday 1pm)
The penultimate first round match to get started in the World Championship this year sees the 2023 champion Luca Brecel beginning his quest to defend as many of the 500,000 ranking points he won when lifting the title when he opens up his campaign against Ryan Day.
Day was one of the least appealing qualifiers in terms of standing out in his matches there but he might have had a right result because Brecel might have been the seed that all of the qualifiers wanted. Brecel has improved a little in 2025 and we saw something like the form which took him to the title here two years ago but we didn’t see it consistently enough. Unfortunately for him, his first half of the campaign was so poor that we haven’t seen the Belgian hit a ball in anger since the Welsh Open more than two months ago. Day is at least sharp and that should serve him well and you wouldn’t think that he will struggle for chances here because Brecel isn’t going to play a tight game. I think there is value on the Welshman here. I wouldn’t say he is a certainty or anything like that but if he can start well and get Brecel on the back foot then he might find there isn’t much resistance. Day should be active enough to open up a first session lead and I’ll pay to see if he can ride it to victory.
Mark Selby vs Ben Woollaston (Wednesday 7pm & Thursday 7pm)
The last of the first round matches to start and finish will be the one which involves two Leicester players when the former winner here in Mark Selby goes up against Ben Woollaston who is back at the Crucible Theatre for the first time in 12 years.
It will be interesting to see if those intervening years will have built up a bunch of nerves for this first round clash. You would think it would have but the flip side to that is that playing someone he knows well might allow him to settle down a little easier. Time will tell on both counts but even if he does settle into this match well I still think he is bang up against it because I expect Selby to go very deep in this competition if not actually win it. He has been playing some excellent snooker this season and we know that the format suits him perfectly. It is probably no bad thing for Selby that he faces someone he knows well so I expect him to come through here but I’ve been consistent all week that I am wanting to see the seeds in action before I get involved in them so I’ll sit this one out too.
Tips
Back R.Day to beat L.Brecel for a 3/10 stake at 2.75 with Bet365
