The World Championship starts on Monday, qualifiers for a week and a bit then the final stages from a fortnight today. The whole lot is in Sheffield, which will be the first snooker played outside of MK or Celtic Manor since last year's Worlds.
The headline tie from the draw got plenty of publicity - Jimmy White v Stephen Hendry on Monday evening, a repeat of four previous finals. What are the odds on that happening eh? Well, 1 in 32 as it happens. Hendry's comeback has been a damp squib, he's only played once which was a defeat to Matt Selt. White has had a fairly positive season by his standards and for once might get to stay on tour through his own performance rather than relying on Bazza to give him a wild card. Whoever wins will need to win three more ties to make the final stages, Xu Si in the next round feels winnable but then it'll be Zhou Yuelong who is the highest ranked player in qualifiers, so no chance of either of them getting past him.
Stuart Bingham has carelessly managed to fall out of the top 16 and has to play qualifying for the first time since 2010. His first match against Mitchell Mann, Robbie McGuigan (who?) or Chen Zifan shouldn't present too many difficulties but then he'll likely have to beat Luca Brecel or Mark King who can both be brilliant or terrible on their day. Brecel has fallen down the rankings quite spectacularly, he was 14th seed as recently as a couple of years ago but he's now 47th. Bingham will be a player everyone wants to avoid in the first round proper should he make it, he'll be match sharp and might well start favourite against some players. He won't win the thing again but could very easily beat someone who might.
There's two women in the draw. Reanne Evans faces Andy Hicks who beat her at the same stage last year. If she gets through that her draw looks brutal - Eden Sharav, then Graeme Dott, then probably Sunny Akani. I don't know much about Rebecca Kenna but she meets Brandon Sergeant first - there's worse draws than that. Pity Evans didn't get that draw really, she'd definitely have a chance with that, then Andrew Higginson and Li Hang would be difficult but winnable. Though Jamie Jones / Michael Holt in final qualifying would have been a step too far.
Qualifying is at the Institute of Sport again, all behind closed doors. The final stages are at the Crucible and expected to be one of the government's pilot events as part of our irreversible path to liberty, equality and fraternity or something. It's not clear exactly what the arrangements will be but they had spectators (as part of, um, government pilot events) last summer for a few days without any significant issues so this will presumably form a template.
The headline tie from the draw got plenty of publicity - Jimmy White v Stephen Hendry on Monday evening, a repeat of four previous finals. What are the odds on that happening eh? Well, 1 in 32 as it happens. Hendry's comeback has been a damp squib, he's only played once which was a defeat to Matt Selt. White has had a fairly positive season by his standards and for once might get to stay on tour through his own performance rather than relying on Bazza to give him a wild card. Whoever wins will need to win three more ties to make the final stages, Xu Si in the next round feels winnable but then it'll be Zhou Yuelong who is the highest ranked player in qualifiers, so no chance of either of them getting past him.
Stuart Bingham has carelessly managed to fall out of the top 16 and has to play qualifying for the first time since 2010. His first match against Mitchell Mann, Robbie McGuigan (who?) or Chen Zifan shouldn't present too many difficulties but then he'll likely have to beat Luca Brecel or Mark King who can both be brilliant or terrible on their day. Brecel has fallen down the rankings quite spectacularly, he was 14th seed as recently as a couple of years ago but he's now 47th. Bingham will be a player everyone wants to avoid in the first round proper should he make it, he'll be match sharp and might well start favourite against some players. He won't win the thing again but could very easily beat someone who might.
There's two women in the draw. Reanne Evans faces Andy Hicks who beat her at the same stage last year. If she gets through that her draw looks brutal - Eden Sharav, then Graeme Dott, then probably Sunny Akani. I don't know much about Rebecca Kenna but she meets Brandon Sergeant first - there's worse draws than that. Pity Evans didn't get that draw really, she'd definitely have a chance with that, then Andrew Higginson and Li Hang would be difficult but winnable. Though Jamie Jones / Michael Holt in final qualifying would have been a step too far.
Qualifying is at the Institute of Sport again, all behind closed doors. The final stages are at the Crucible and expected to be one of the government's pilot events as part of our irreversible path to liberty, equality and fraternity or something. It's not clear exactly what the arrangements will be but they had spectators (as part of, um, government pilot events) last summer for a few days without any significant issues so this will presumably form a template.
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