The Tour Championship was a very interesting tournament. There was plenty of century-breaking and great safety play from the eight among the Top 16. Remarkably, it is Ding Junhui’s last-minute replacement who took the crown. Not only did Maguire win the ranking trophy, but won the Coral Cup, the highest break prize and a Champion of Champions place. Not too shabby for five days of hard work.
Following Stephen Maguire’s brilliant ranking victory in the Tour Championship, the Crucible seeds are now confirmed.
More notably, Stephen Maguire came into the Tour Championship at No. 14 in the world. After that tournament, Maguire is No. 9 in the world. The victories and the losses have changed the World Championship line-up quite dramatically. Mark Allen’s road to the final helped him rise one place from fifth to fourth in the ranking table. That is also Allen’s highest ranking position in his career. Of course with those coming up, others must come down.
The Crucible Draw
Here is the confirmed Crucible draw, qualifiers pending:
It’s nice to know that there isn’t an easy quarter. There shouldn’t be. It’s the best sixteen players in the world. But the bottom half is madness. To put into perspective, two players in the top half (Trump and Higgins) have made it to the World Championship final at least once. In the bottom half, every single seeded player has done the same. That’s also five world titles won in the top half compared to fourteen won in the bottom half!
What would be very interesting is whether there will be a crowd in the World Championships or not. Hopefully, if circumstances change, the powers that be will allow World Snooker to have a crowd. But it seems likely that there wouldn’t be and that could give some players an extra advantage because of the lack of added pressure. What about accommodation too? There are more things that are up in the air that could have an influence on these players, qualifiers included.
John Higgins believes this year’s World Championship “could be the best tournament standard-wise … Everyone will be sharp as a tack. It could break all the records in terms of centuries.” What do you think?
First Quarter
Judd Trump should feel relieved with this quarter. Had Yan Bingtao beaten Mark Selby in the Tour Championship, Judd would have the possibility of meeting 2012 World Championship finalist Barry Hawkins instead. But no, Judd might have greater pleasure of facing the 20-year-old Chinese player, who hasn’t won a match at the Crucible yet. But there are two dramatic changes between before and after the Tour Championship.
Firstly, Stephen Maguire has leapt to from one side of the draw to his side. Not only does this set-up to a delicious tie between him and 2018 World Championship semi-finalist Kyren Wilson, but also a possible quarter-final against Trump. Maguire will see this as another opportunity of revenge due to Trump’s victory over the Scot in the 2019 World Championship. Maguire beat Trump 9-6 in quite a low-quality match in the Tour Championship. Before that match, Trump questioned his dedication and mental strength, as well as believing that Maguire has certainly underachieved.
Second, is Trump’s invincibility. There is no doubt that the defending World Champion had an outstanding season. A record-breaking six titles as well as 98 centuries is incredible in anybody’s book. But his performances during the Tour Championship took a slight shine off his season. Stephen Hendry said that Trump’s performance was the worst he’s seen in a very long time. Trump’s post-match complaints on the poor conditions and the heat didn’t help his cause, considering other players performed better than him. But Trump did beat Higgins then and now has time before the Worlds to right his wrongs. Kyren Wilson reached the World Championship quarter-finals in his last four appearances and is not to be underestimated.
Second Quarter
For any snooker fan who was touched by David Gilbert’s emotional interview after his crushing loss last year, look away now.
Because of Maguire’s Tour Championship victory, he moved both Gilbert and Jack Lisowski down the ranking list by one place. Because Allen leapfrogged Higgins by reaching the final, John Higgins and Gilbert could meet in the Last 16. For those who don’t know, the very likeable David Gilbert had a memorable run to the semi-finals and initially led an out-of-sorts Higgins 7-12. Unfortunately, Higgins came back to win 17-16 in last year’s World Championship. Perfect time for Gilbert to get revenge then!
Higgins hasn’t performed well for a good few seasons, despite a couple of titles along the way. He had thoughts about possible retirement due to dissatisfaction with snooker. Despite this loss of form, he still reached three World finals in a row. They must’ve wore him out completely, even though he could do very little against Trump’s astonishing dominance last year.
Mark Allen has seriously underachieved based on World Championship record alone. In thirteen Crucible appearances, he made the final eight just four times, which isn’t good enough. His ascension to No. 4 in the world could improve that record, as his Last 16 opponent could be Jack Lisowski. Lisowski has reached the final once this season and his Crucible record isn’t fantastic either. He has won just one match in three Crucible appearances and was knocked out by qualifier Ali Carter 10-6 last year. This could be the breakthrough Allen is yearning for.
Third Quarter
There is a lot of pedigree in this quarter. All four have reached the Worlds final. There are nine World Championship titles between Stuart Bingham, Mark Williams and of course, Ronnie O’Sullivan.
We saw how good O’Sullivan was at the Championship League without a crowd. Playing without a crowd will hugely benefit him, as there is no pressure and it will feel like playing an exhibition match. So it should be easy for Ronnie right? But don’t forget, the World Championship is a 17-day marathon, not a sprint. His poor Crucible record since losing to Selby in the 2014 final is poor. Ronnie O’Sullivan says he has “struggled” in the “bubble” surrounding the Championship League tournament and it will be tough be him to perform if the Worlds will operate in a similar way.
But what about the rest? Mark Williams has slowed down since his remarkable 2018 victory, with one ranking title and one final to his name. Ding Junhui had a great and unexpected run to win the 2019 UK Championship, but then Ding returned to his shell again. Hendry lamented Ding’s worsening attitude and inability to handle pressure and expectations from his home country. Hendry and Williams believe that Ding’s the best player to never win the World Championship.
Then we have Bingham. He is having a very quiet season, despite winning his second Triple Crown event. He won the 2020 Masters by beating Ali Carter 10-8. There are a couple of early defeats creeping in for Bingham and I feel he needs his 2015 World Championship form to stand any chance at the Crucible.
Fourth Quarter
The Fourth Quarter is what other sports call ‘The Group of Death’ for me. Selby, Murphy, Hawkins, Robertson. It just looks horrible.
If you were to name the top five performers this season, Selby, Murphy and Robertson would be among them. These three former world champions won seven ranking and non-ranking tournaments combined. Selby is incredibly inconsistent and it is harder to know which Selby will turn up next. But he does have two ranking titles this season and the World Championships at the Crucible are normally where he shows his best form. After all, Selby won the tournament three times! Shaun Murphy’s resurgence has paid off and is a much more confident player. It’s still amazing that he scored six centuries and still lost his opening Tour Championship match!
Neil Robertson is probably the second best player on the circuit, though his play in the Championship League and the Tour Championship don’t quite show that. The problem with Robertson is that he’s gone into the World Championship on convincing form but doesn’t quite deliver at the Crucible. Since his 2010 World Championship win, he lost his opening tie four times. He hasn’t reached the semi-finals since 2014. Which is why his possible tie with Barry Hawkins could be very interesting.
Barry Hawkins reached the quarter-final stage six years in a row, including four semi-finals and the 2012 final. That run was only broken last year by Kyren Wilson, another player who performs well at the Crucible. Hawkins is very easy to underestimate, despite going missing this season. He could be a very stern test for The Thunder From Down Under.
Dates
2020 Betfred World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) is scheduled to take place from 31 July to 16 August at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield.
Qualifying for the 2020 World Snooker Championship will take place from 21 to 28 July 2020 at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.
