Welcome to the 2021 World Snooker Championship! In April!
Sixteen players have made it through the exhausting gauntlet of qualifying. Two of these players will be making their debuts at the Crucible. There will actually be some crowds, though let’s hope everyone will be sensible about it all. Whoever wins the first round match will win £30,000 of money as well as ranking points. So very important indeed. Not least that there is a World Championship trophy to be won!
Can Ronnie O’Sullivan lift his 7th World title this season, equalling Stephen Hendry’s record? Will Judd Trump or Neil Robertson be a multiple World Champion this season? Will Mark Williams get naked again?
This is the stage where we guess how many shocks there will be. The fewest number of Crucible seeds knocked out of the first round is 1 (1983 & 1993); the most is 8 (1992 & 2012), and the average since 1982 is 4.41. I did a countdown on the greatest shocks in the first round of the World Snooker Championship and you can find this out by clicking here!
Seedings are correct to the world rankings after the 2021 Tour Championship, according to World Snooker Tour. The H2H will include Championship League and Snooker Shoot-Out results. This is because BO3 event WST Pro Series and one of the Championship League tournaments were ranking events. Also, it is not worth the time being so pernickety about it all. The H2H’s will come from Cuetracker.
DRAW
Ronnie O’Sullivan (1) vs. Mark Joyce (46)
H2H: O’Sullivan is leading Joyce 2-1.
Last Meeting: 2021 WST Pro Series (O’Sullivan winning 2-1).
Ronnie O’Sullivan is having an excellent season. That is weird to say, considering he reached five ranking finals this season and lost them all. But you can argue that if any player reached five ranking finals in a season, they have done very well indeed. But the final victory is usually what matters. It is a fact that he hasn’t won a title since he won the 2020 World Snooker Championship. What is concerning are his recent comments that he won’t go the extra gear to win a match from far behind.
Mark Joyce has been a ‘steady eddy’ for a while. The 2019 Riga Masters finalist has reached the third round in the 2020 Scottish Open and that’s just about it. He proceeded to the final round by beating Anthony Hamilton 6-4 and fought off a fightback from Igor Figueiredo to win 10-7. This will be Joyce’s debut at the Crucible and he faces the defending champion. That sounds intimidating, but the last time O’Sullivan lost to a debutant was in 2019 when amateur James Cahill beat the Rocket.
The last meeting was when O’Sullivan wasn’t taking the tournament too seriously. The previous meeting was in 2017 China Open, when Joyce beat O’Sullivan 5-4. But I cannot see Joyce threatening O’Sullivan based on recent and season form. O’Sullivan should win this comfortably as the Crucible is almost his territory now! I am intrigued to see how Ronnie will perform when he is a huge favourite of the first tie.
Prediction: O’Sullivan to win 10-4. (17th April)
Anthony McGill (16) vs. Ricky Walden (35)
H2H: McGill is leading Walden 1-0.
Last Meeting: 2016 World Open (McGill winning 5-1).
It is odd to see Anthony McGill in the Top 16 because he hasn’t even reached a ranking quarter-final this season. His ranking is largely helped thanks to his brilliant run to the semi-finals in last year’s World Championship. That semi-final match against Kyren Wilson will live long in the memory for years to come, though that famously ended in remarkable circumstances. But the Scotsmans’ Crucible record is hard to ignore. McGill won his first-round match in four out of six appearances!
Ricky Walden had been considered a staple in the Crucible line-up but his back injuries and loss of form contributed to a decline in the rankings. But he is slowly getting back on his feet. As it stands, his performances in the World Championship Qualifiers have propelled him back into the Top 32 for the first time in two seasons. Walden comfortably dispatched Peter Lines 6-1 and did very well to beat Ryan Day 10-5.
Walden is capable of beating Crucible seeds as a qualifier, having done so against Luca Brecel in 2018. But everyone is aware of how good McGill is at the Crucible. I think McGill will win as he usually comes alive in this tournament.
Prediction: McGill to win 10-6. (18th & 19th April)
Ding Junhui (9) vs. Stuart Bingham (18)
H2H: Bingham is leading Ding 10-6.
Last Meeting: 2016 Champion of Champions (Ding winning 6-4).
This is the match of the round. Poor Ding has drawn the short straw.
Ding Junhui has reached four ranking event quarter-finals as well as the final eight of the 2020 Champion of Champions. But his form is erratic at best. Many of us want Ding to rediscover his brilliant potential and form and hopefully lift something that he seemed destined to lift: the World Championship trophy. But he lost to top players such as Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump and John Higgins this season as well to lower-ranked players Hossein Vafaei, David Grace and Pang Junxu.
Stuart Bingham progressed through the qualifiers with relative ease. Chen Zifan did not put him under any pressure and Bingham comfortably won 6-1. Though Bingham was 3-1 down at the first interval, he pulled away to beat Luca Brecel 10-5. His famed break-building looks fantastic during the qualifiers too. He scored four centuries and nine +50 breaks.
Bingham will be disappointed that his match isn’t sooner than Monday so he can carry that winning momentum. But I still back Bingham to win his match. He has a superior H2H record, has a point to prove and is scoring better. Sadly, we still have no idea which Ding will turn up next.
Prediction: Bingham to win 10-7. (19th & 20th April)
Stephen Maguire (8) vs. Jamie Jones (69)
H2H: Jones is leading Maguire 1-0.
Last Meeting: 2014 Australian Open (Jones winning 5-0).
Stephen Maguire hasn’t done too much since winning the 2020 Tour Championship last season. He has just one semi-final appearance to his name since then, losing to a rampant Jordan Brown in the 2021 Welsh Open. Maguire admits that his biggest challenge will be winning a first-round match at the Crucible. He won just three first-round matches in the last 10 appearances at the World Championships, both as a seed and as a qualifier.
We have all heard of Jamie Jones’s turmoil since he was suspended for failing to report a corrupt approach. But to perform how he’s performed this season, his season has been remarkable. He is guaranteed to reach the Top 64 at the end of the season. This is despite the fact that he is in the first year of his two-year card! Jones has a pedigree in this tournament, qualifying three times before, winning the first round tie twice and reaching the 2012 quarterfinals.
It will be interesting to see what Maguire will do to improve his dire Crucible record. Jones will be performing with absolutely nothing to lose and would feel that he is where he deserves to be. It would be easy to say Maguire will lose this tie based on record alone. Jones will sense blood and, though I am not 100% on the victor, I believe he will beat Maguire in a close game.
Prediction: Jones to win 10-8. (17th & 18th April)
John Higgins (5) vs. Tian Pengfei (53)
H2H: Higgins is leading Tian 3-0.
Last Meeting: 2015 UK Championship (Higgins winning 6-2).
If John Higgins will play in this World Championship as he did in the Players Championship, he will have a very good chance of winning this event. It seemed a very long time ago since Higgins went from contemplating retirement in 2018 to resisting those thoughts a year later. He looks like one of the men to beat, reaching the finals of the Masters and demolishing every opponent in the Players Championship. If Higgins brings his Players Championship game, then he’ll win this tournament!
Tian Pengfei is a player who I cannot predict well. He is one of those players who performs better against higher-ranked opponents compared to the lower-ranked ones. He dispatched higher-ranked opponent Sunny Akani 6-4 and resisted a gusty fightback from Graeme Dott to win 10-7. If anyone can initially dismantle such a player like Dott 8-1, you know he is playing very well indeed. He is having a very quiet and mediocre season so far, but he is unpredictable.
Tian was very unlucky to lose on his debut back in 2019. Stephen Maguire needed a snooker against Tian was 9-7 down but pulled off an outrageous fluke and ended up winning 10-9. I cannot see Higgins having a lot of difficulty with Tian. Higgins doesn’t suffer from too many first-round losses, having last did so in 2014. I believe Higgins should pull through here.
Prediction: Higgins to win 10-5. (18th & 19th April)
Mark Williams (12) vs. Sam Craigie (58)
H2H: Williams is leading Craigie 2-0.
Last Meeting: 2021 WST Pro Series (Williams winning 2-0).
Mark Williams managed to win his first ranking event in two-and-a-half years. Indeed, it is a WST Pro Series round-robin but it showed his great consistency this season in the shorter events. He reached the final group in the Championship and the semis of the Shoot-Out. Williams also reached the 2021 Welsh Open semis. His recent form is decent and we all know how good his Crucible pedigree is.
Sam Craigie is finally reaching the heights that a lot of people expect him to be. Neil Robertson even said a few years ago that Craigie’s game is Top 16 standard. Craigie has gone into the World Qualifiers in great form, reaching the final group of the WST Pro Series. Craigie beat Ashley Hugill, and whitewashed Hossein Vafaei and defeated Chinese prospect Zhao Xintong. I’m not sure if Williams would want to meet Craigie because they practice under the same SightRight stable.
I genuinely thing this will be a potential decider. Williams famously has a lot of bottle and won’t underestimate Craigie. But it is hard to see Craigie fazed by the occasion. I think Williams might pull through but it will be close.
Prediction: Williams to win 10-9. (21th April)
Mark Allen (13) vs. Lyu Haotian (56)
H2H: Allen is leading Lyu 2-0.
Last Meeting: 2018 World Open (Allen winning 5-1).
Mark Allen started the season with a wonderful feather in his cap. Winning the Champion of Champions by beating the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump and Neil Robertson was an impressive feat. But since then, he hasn’t done much apart from reaching the 2021 Gibraltar Open quarters. He was 4th in the world this time last year and has declined to 13th. He has a questionable Crucible record too. He got knocked out of the first-round the last two World Championships, losing to Zhou Yuelong (2019) and Jamie Clarke (2020).
Lyu Haotian seems to be one of those players that goes missing this season but has one large run every now and again. Since his impressive run to the Last 16 of the 2018 World Championship, he reached two ranking semis and is a 2019 Indian Lyu scrapped through Gao Yang 6-5, received a bye in Round 3 because Noppon Saengkham had a positive COVID-19 test and has beaten the young Chang Bingyu 10-6.
I think Mark Allen will win this tie easily. I hope learned his lesson from taking liberties over his loss against Clarke last year. Allen will be working very hard to get his Crucible record back on track.
Prediction: Allen to win 10-4. (20th April)
Mark Selby (4) vs. Kurt Maflin (25)
H2H: Selby is leading Maflin 2-0.
Last Meeting: 2015 World Championship (Selby winning 10-9).
For me, this is one of the ties of the round. You would understand if you watched their meeting in the 2015 World Championship!
Mark Selby’s season has been excellent. Three quarter-finals, three semi-finals, one final and two ranking victories is brilliant. He seems to have got his confidence and winning mojo back since he starting working under coach Chris Henry. He has been knocked out of the first round of the World Championship just four times in sixteen appearances and we haven’t forgotten his three-trophy haul between 2014-2017. I do wonder if he recovered from how he lost last year’s semi-final?
I don’t understand where Kurt Maflin got this form from. He was largely absent in the second half of the seasons due to restricted travel, COVID restrictions and goodness knows what. He played poorly in the Championship League, clinching just six frames without winning a match. But he got his scoring boots back on in the qualifiers, scoring one +50 break and three centuries to beat 6-4 versus Jak Jones and breezed past hard-hitting Robert Milkins 10-4.
Selby is having an excellent season and his Crucible record is brilliant. Regards to Maflin, it will be interesting to see how long he can keep the form up, especially since their match starts on Wednesday. Selby will pull through this match and it won’t be tighter than their most recent meeting.
Prediction: Selby to win 10-6. (21th & 22th April)
Neil Robertson (3) vs. Liang Wenbo (29)
H2H: Robertson is leading Liang 7-3.
Last Meeting: 2020 World Championship (Robertson winning 10-5).
Neil Robertson did have a lull during the third lockdown and homesickness but that’s evaporated after his father’s visit last month. Thankfully, he can now fully concentrate on his snooker. Robertson has won two of the most lucrative titles this season, before the World Championship of course. He defeated Judd Trump in a nail-biting decider in the UK Championship and took apart Ronnie O’Sullivan in the Tour Championship. O’Sullivan praised Neil’s cue action and described his potting as “frightening“. All of the above shows that he has to be one of the favourites to win this year’s World Championship. He is on the best form out of the Top 16 at the moment.
Liang has given a rough ride from Rod Lawler. Liang surrendered a 4-0 lead to just 4-3 ahead, before finishing the match off. Liang then beat compatriot Lu Ning 10-7 in a close-fought match. Weirdly, Liang has won two first-round ties out of seven Crucible appearances and one of them was as a seeded player.
Both Robertson and Liang last met in last year’s Worlds. They also met in the 2015 UK Championship final and both times Robertson won quite comfortably. I fancy Robertson to do to same here.
Prediction: Robertson to win 10-5. (17th & 18th April)
Jack Lisowski (14) vs. Ali Carter (23)
H2H: Carter is leading Lisowski 2-0.
Last Meeting: 2021 WST Pro Series (Carter winning 2-0).
I feel sorry for Jack Lisowski. As a seeded player, he was drawn against Ali Carter (2019) and Anthony McGill (2020). Now, Lisowski has got Carter again! This is probably Lisowski’s best season to date, reaching two quarters and three finals. He has changed his mindset and technique and it has paid off completely. It was just a shame that he lost all three finals.
Ali Carter has been performing well all season, much better compared to last year. He reached the Northern Ireland Open semi-finals, the Welsh Open quarter-finals and the final groups of the WSF Pro Series and the Championship League. He carried on that recent form by beating 21 year-old rising star Pang Junxu 6-4. After he beat Alexander Urenbacher 10-4, he looked like he couldn’t wait to get to the Crucible. More worryingly, he looked like he didn’t care which player he would come up against.
The problem with this tie is that Lisowski is a much better player than he was two years ago. The only worrying factor for Lisowski is that he hasn’t won a Crucible match since 2018. I will stick with Carter with the win, despite my desire for Lisowski to be the victor. I’m not sure how Lisowski will play in big matches, while Carter is one of the players no one wants to be against.
Prediction: Carter to win 10-7. (19th & 20th April)
Barry Hawkins (11) vs. Matthew Selt (32)
H2H: Hawkins is leading Selt 5-4.
Last Meeting: 2021 Gibraltar Open (Hawkins winning 4-3).
Barry Hawkins had an extremely quiet first half of this season. There was even a point where it looked like he wouldn’t automatically qualify for the Crucible. But semi-finals appearances in the German Masters, Players Championship and Tour Championship catapulted him to No. 11 in the rankings. The main concern is how he will kill big matches off. He lost to Judd Trump 6-5 despite being 5-1 up and to Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-9 despite being 9-6 ahead.
Matt Selt had a quiet season until his win over Stephen Hendry in the first round of the 2021 Gibraltar Open. Selt went on to his semi-finals. Selt showed some bottle by beating Nigel Bond 6-5, despite being 5-2 down with a point of no return. He scored three centuries and three half-centuries in an easy 10-3 win over Scott Donaldson. He claims he’s in the best form of his life. He also said he would love to be against John Higgins. That didn’t work out.
Hawkins and Selt did meet in the 2015 World Championships. Hawkins was leading 7-2 and Selt forced a decider before the Hawk emerged victoriously. I will stick with Hawkins on his one because he has been re-energised near the end of this season and can disrupt Selt’s rhythm. Let’s just hope if he can finish off a big win, please?
Prediction: Hawkins to win 10-8. (20th & 21th April)
Kyren Wilson (6) vs. Gary Wilson (22)
H2H: Kyren is leading Gary 6-3.
Last Meeting: 2021 Masters (Kyren winning 6-2).
If I hear the cheeky lines “I think Wilson will win that tie” or “my money is on Wilson” ONE MORE TIME…
The 2020 World Championship finalist has certainly been very consistent this season. He reached eight quarter-finals in total and one semi-final. Weirdly, Kyren won the Championship League twice, one as a ranking event and the other not. He will be coming into this competition in fine form with a greater desire to win. The 2020 World finalist shouldn’t complain with playing a first-round match this time around, since his opponent Anthony Hamilton pulled out over health concerns last year.
Gary Wilson is having a season way below his calibre. He confessed that he was suffering badly this season and bravely opened up on his battle with depression before the Masters. After his final victory over Steven Hallworth, Gary insisted that his season has been abysmal. But he will be relaxed because he says he has finished his season on a high note by reaching the Crucible. One highlight include getting a snooker back and potting the final black to go 5-4 ahead.
However, I cannot see Gary making the same wonderful run that he did in 2019. Kyren’s record is also very hard to ignore. He has reached the final eight stage every year since 2016. So I think Kyren will look to assert his authority.
Prediction: Kyren to win 10-4. (19th April)
Shaun Murphy (7) vs. Mark Davis (45)
H2H: Murphy is leading Davis 12-7.
Last Meeting: 2019 Scottish Open (Murphy winning 4-0).
Currently No. 18 in the one-year ranking list, Shaun Murphy is having a below-par season. He started brightly in the very first tournament, reaching the European Masters semi-finals. But he has failed to reach the final eight of any ranking tournament since. He will hope to banish last year’s memories at the World Championship. Murphy has out-of-sorts during his first-round loss to Noppon Saengkham, most notably because of the passing of his manager and friend Brandon Parker.
Mark Davis are very dependable and held off the challenge from Stuart Carrington by winning 6-4. Davis has reached the Crucible stages eleven times throughout his long snooker career. He was looking down the barrel at 7-2 down against the young and incredibly tenacious Jamie Clarke. But he turned the match on its head and he one 10-8! He hasn’t been the player to come back from such a deficit but he somehow managed it.
This is a tight draw because Murphy is so out of form, while Davis doesn’t have a great record at the World Snooker Championships. This could be the sort of match that will be close in the first session and someone will pull away in the second. I believe that to be the case for Shaun Murphy.
Prediction: Murphy to win 10-6. (21th & 22th April)
Yan Bingtao (10) vs. Martin Gould (27)
H2H: Yan is leading Gould 3-1.
Last Meeting: 2020 European Masters (Gould winning 5-4).
Yan Bingtao won the 2021 Masters, coming back from 3–5 and 5–7 behind against John Higgins. That’s about as much confidence as he could take to the Crucible. The 21 year-old only has a couple of quarter-finals appearances to his name this season. But he will come into the Crucible as a proper Top 16 player. He won his first World Championship last year by beating Elliot Slessor 10-7, before succumbing to defeat in a hard-fought loss to then-defending champion Judd Trump 13-11.
Gould is probably one of the tougher draws. He is hugely experienced, featured in the Crucible several times and is now very confident. A different to the despondent Gould this time last year. This season he made the World Grand Prix quarter-final and the European Masters final. He defeated Duane Jones 6-4 and had a tough time against surprise package Bai Langning, before he rallied six frames in a row to win 10-5.
This is one of the hardest draws to decide for me because it is quite evenly matched. Yan’s style of play is fantastic in such a long format, while Gould can threaten and blow people over like how he thrashed Maguire 10-3 last year. It will be close and I will side with Yan.
Prediction: Yan to win 10-8. (17th & 18th April)
David Gilbert (15) vs. Chris Wakelin (63)
H2H: Gilbert is leading Wakelin 1-0
Last Meeting: 2013 Rotterdam Open (Gilbert winning 4-0).
The Angry Farmer is having a very poor season. He is No. 52 in the one-year ranking list, which is way below what his calibre. During the Masters, he opened up with his struggles of lockdown in England. Though he reached the semis of the Masters and made the Shoot-Out quarter-finals, there isn’t too much to boast about. His opener will feel like a must-win match to stay in the Top 16, as he has to defend his ranking points rewarded from his semi-final heroics in the 2019 World Championship.
Chris Wakelin will come into this match more relaxed than usual. He saved his tour status in the Top 64 by beating Lei Peifan, Matthew Stevens and eventually Xiao Guodong in this event. The match against Lei showed his true grit, as the 2021 Gibraltar Open quarter-finalist beat Lei from 3-5 down to win 6-5. Wakelin will feel that he is walking on water as his performances saved his tour card. He reckoned that he is a better player than he was when he lost to Judd Trump 10-9 in 2018.
It is weird to see that they haven’t in eight years. Gilbert’s loss to Kurt Maflin last year took the wind out of his sails. Not only is he on poor form but he is losing many points from his 2019 run. He would feel a lot of pressure to defend those points to keep himself in the Top 16. I am quite tempted to say Wakelin to win here.
Prediction: Wakelin to win 10-6. (17th & 18th April)
Judd Trump (2) vs. Liam Highfield (49)
H2H: Trump is leading Highfield 4-2.
Last Meeting: 2018 European Masters (Trump winning 4-0).
There is a lot to write about Judd Trump this season. Five ranking victories and two additional finals is a phenomenal achievement. But unlike last season, cracks are starting to appear this season. The talk of him needing to Triple Crown events continues to hover. Even though he won two ranking events in the last season, he lost to Stuart Bingham, Hossein Vafaei and Barry Hawkins and strangely hasn’t taken those defeats well at all. His break from his packed schedule and away from the limelight while others qualify for the Crucible may do him some good. Let’s see if that is the case.
Liam Highfield reached the third round of three ranking events this season but has done well enough to stay in the Top 64. He fought off a fightback from Elliot Slessor, who qualified for the Crucible last year, to win 6-5. He scored three +50 breaks and a 132. But his win over the highest-seeded qualifier was a real feat. Highfield beat Zhou Yuelong 10-7 to pull off a surprise win. He made his only appearance in 2018, where he lost 10-5 to Mark Allen. There were a lot of close frames in that match and one does feel that is the battleground for this match.
The interesting thing about Trump is that he never wins his first-round match easily. His most “comfortable” victory at this stage of the Crucible was a 10-5 victory over Dominic Dale in 2013. I do think Trump is better than Highfield in all departments but I fancy a late flurry of frames near the end of the match.
Prediction: Trump to win 10-6. (20th & 21th April)
The 2021 World Snooker Championship will take place between 17th April and 3rd May 2021 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England.
