The World Snooker Championship will be held from 15 April to 1 May in Sheffield, England. The event will take place at the Crucible Theatre. Four rounds of competition qualification will be played first. In the first three stages, the games consist of eleven games. And at the last qualifying stage, the best will be determined in a match up to ten victories. As a result, out of thirty-two participants in the competition: 16 qualifiers and 16 seeded form the main round. If you are a gambler and love casino games, we recommend visiting the excellent site https://mostbet-uz-casino.com/kirish/.
Thirty-two athletes will take part in the main draw. Matches of the 1/16 finals will be held from 19 frames. In round ⅛, players will fight to thirteen wins. The same applies to the quarter-final stage. As part of the semi-final stage, the participants will determine the strongest with a maximum of 33 games. The decisive match includes four sessions and the best will be the one who can score 18 games.
Background of the tournament
At this event, Joe Davis has the most wins – 15. Fred Davis and John Palmen have eight title wins. Since moving to the Crucible, Sheffield’s record holders are Stephen Hendry of Scotland and home representative Ronnie O’Sullivan, with seven wins each. The Scot was remembered for his resounding successes in the 90s, and the Englishman began to win world championships already in the current 21st century.
In addition, of the current players, four successes at the World Championship are on the track record of Mark Selby from England and Scot John Higgins. Welshman Mark Williams has won the main trophy three times. Of the currently playing snooker players, Sean Murphy, Judd Trump and Stuart Bingham each have one victory at the world championship. In addition to these athletes, Irishman Ken Doherty, Graham Dott from Scotland, and Australian Neil Robertson. The British Jimmy White, Alistair Carter, Nigel Bond, Barry Hawkins and Kyren Wilson, the Chinese Ding Junhui, and Matthew Stevens from Wales reached the final of the tournament.
Favorite bookmakers
The 2022 finalist, local Judd Trump is on the leaderboard in the battle for snooker’s world crown. The current World Cup winner Ronnie O’Sullivan is the second favorite to compete this year. Despite the already venerable age, the “rocket” is still the leader in the ranking and is probably ready to defend his title. One step down among the contenders for the trophy are compatriot “magician” Mark Selby, as well as Neil Robertson from Australia. Of those who can shoot – veterans John Higgins and Mark Williams. In the role of dark horses can be considered the local Sean Murphy, Kyren Wilson, as well as the Chinese representatives Zhao Xingtun and Ding Junhui (who defeated the leader of the rating 6:0 dry during the current season). Note that, in addition to the two most experienced snooker players and finalists in 2022, Stuart Bingham, Yan Bingtao, Jack Lisowski and Stephen Maguire got into the quarterfinal stage.
Who can stop Ronnie from winning the World Cup?
Several snooker players can prevent the first cue of the planet from achieving victory at the World Championship 2023. But for this you need to be in almost ideal conditions.
First of all, the same Trump, who, in addition to winning one trophy, has already played in the final twice, but was inferior to Higgins (who later took revenge at the Crucible) and Ronnie a year ago. Judd is currently the first favorite for bookmakers and for good reason. This player is very talented, but there are some problems in psychology, which obviously interfere with him in key situations. “Ace” managed to defeat the opponent at the Masters, but lost to a more experienced opponent in previous meetings, including the final confrontation in 2022.
Selby has experience of beating O’Sullivan in major competitions such as the British Championship and the World Championship. This is of course a threat to the more skilled player who was able to defend his title once in 2013. Mark, by the way, also at one time retained the trophy he won in 2016, having achieved success in the World Cup for the next season.
Neil Robertson certainly poses a danger to the reigning world champion, as he has already defeated the “magician” three times in a season. The Australian can create problems if the game drags on and starves out. Therefore, it is definitely not worth writing off the champion of 2010 from the accounts.
Higgins played in the final in 2019 and is clearly not going to retire yet. It was O’Sullivan who stopped John at the Crucible a year ago. Last season, however, Ronnie outplayed the Scot in only two out of eight fights. So the 47-year-old athlete is quite capable of giving a fight to the legend.
As for Mark Williams, this is perhaps the most convenient opponent of the bison. “Rocket” takes 70 percent of victories. But we must pay tribute to the three-time winner of the world championships. A player from Wales a year earlier stopped at the semi-final stage, losing to Trump in the decisive game. The style of the Welshman’s game is very aggressive and open, so any mistake gives the opponent significant chances. To achieve victory, he full concentration of attention and readiness for a long battle is necessary.
It is hard to see that one of the dark horses will be able to impose a fight on top athletes and there are no particularly high hopes for other quarter-finalists in meetings with number 1 of world snooker.
Our forecast
It is very likely that O’Sullivan will be able to achieve the next, eighth cup in a row at the world championship. Robertson wedges at the World Championships, Trump has not yet surpassed the champion. Selby isn’t good enough offensively and extremely unconvincing defensively to drag the veteran into a long fight. Therefore, even despite his age, Ronnie does not fade, and compared to his opponents, he may not be as effective in terms of seriality. However, his game is much more stable and the Englishman is psychologically more stable than his main competitors in this event. Therefore, judging by the quotes of betting companies, you can take a chance and play the victory of the “magician” at the tournament in Sheffield.