By Elliott West
Introduction
Yesterday snooker waited patiently for the greatest snooker draw of the season, who will play who in the first round of the World Championship at the Crucible in Sheffield. The culmination of the season, this tournament can be likened to the Grand National in horse racing or Wimbledon in tennis, the biggest draw where tickets dry up faster than the Sahara desert and the worldwide sporting media drop what they are doing to file photographs and match reports from this seventeen-day snooker bonanza.
There is plenty to be excited about and Ray Reardon would have a field day sinking his teeth into some of these matches, only joking Ray. Those 16 that made it through the minefield of the World Championship qualifiers will join the top 17 seeds who have already automatically qualified for hour after hour of snooker attrition, a rollercoaster of emotions that is heightened in the unique confined space of the Crucible Theatre. The draw signals the green light for this snooker marathon to commence and what a joy it is for those snooker fans and even those who only watch this tournament alone.
The Opposition
This year’s World Championship draw certainly hasn’t failed to disappoint and there are plenty of great matches to watch in these early stages of the tournament. Judd Trump who had a pretty poor season so far apart from winning the Turkish Masters will take on Iran’s Hossein Vafaei, the recent winner of the Snooker Shootout and someone who has been producing some great form in the last few months despite only just qualifying for the Crucible. Hossein may have the early advantage in this match but he to perform better in this longer format. A flaw that Judd could well seize on but even he will have to provide a higher gear of game if he is to advance to deeper stages of this tournament.
All eyes will be on someone who is considered the greatest player in the history of snooker, Ronnie O’Sullivan who starts his 2022 Crucible campaign with a tough first-round match against David Gilbert. Perhaps Gilbert, nicknamed The Angry Farmer, will be wearing his lucky underwear and socks, a superstitious trait that fires him on to win matches and has got Dave to several key finals and a world championship semi-final. A hard ask for Gilbert who will try to push aside Ronnie and prevent him from continuing on his mission to attain a seventh Crucible crown. O’Sullivan will be keen not to produce a repeat performance of the 2019 World Championship where he lost in the first round to qualifier James Cahill 10-8.
Kyren Wilson who has reached at least the quarter-finals of this event since 2016 is up against a resurgent Ding Junhui. Ding has won two of the jewels of the Triple Crown but to date, the World Championship has eluded him despite reaching the final in 2016, losing 14-18 to Mark Selby. Wilson also reached the final but lost heavily to Ronnie O’Sullivan 8-18.
The Draw
Here’s the full draw for the first round and I have given my predictions for the winners minus the score-lines, not that brave!
Mark Selby v Jamie Jones : Selby
Yan Bingtao v Chris Wakelin : Bingtao
Barry Hawkins v Jackson Page: Page
Mark Williams v Michael White: Williams
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Kyren Wilson v Ding Junhui: Wilson
Stuart Bingham v Lyu Haotian: Bingham
Anthony McGill v Liam Highfield: McGill
Judd Trump v Hossein Vafaei:Trump
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Neil Robertson v Ashley Hugill Robertson
Jack Lisowski v Matthew Stevens: Stevens
Luca Brecel v Noppon Saengkham : Brecel
John Higgins v Thepchaiya Un-Nooh: Higgins
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Zhao Xintong v Jamie Clarke: Clarke
Shaun Murphy v Stephen Maguire: Maguire
Mark Allen v Scott Donaldson: Allen
Ronnie O’Sullivan v David Gilbert: O’Sullivan
