It was announced today that we will see the reigning World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan competing against Crucible debutant Mark Joyce.
The Rocket commences his journey to retain the World Championship title this Saturday 17th April at 10am campaign against world number 46 Joyce. This is the first time Joyce will be appearing at the Crucible -Theatre of Dreams after 15 years as a professional.
We also see the World number one Judd Trump has been drawn against Liam Highfield, who made his Crucible debut in 2018. Trump, the 2019 World Champion, has already accumulated five ranking titles this season. Highfield beat world number 17 Zhou Yuelong in the final round of this year’s qualifying event to secure his place at the Championships .
We also see Ding Junhui Asia’s number one competing in the opening round tie against 2015 World Champion Stuart Bingham.
Moving on Mark Williams, who picked up his third Crucible crown in 2018, is up against debutant Sam Craigie in round one, while last year’s runner-up Kyren Wilson faces former semi-finalist Gary Wilson.
With the finals taking place on May 3rd all 32 players will be looking to bring their skill , professionalism and nerve to the table in a bid to not only lift the Trophy but to secure the winners cheque of £500,000 we know that the upcoming World Championships is going to be rollercoaster and without doubt this is going to be an amazing few weeks.
Here is the full breakdown on the Tournament matches
Ronnie O’Sullivan (1) v Mark Joyce
Anthony McGill (16) v Ricky Walden
Ding Junhui (9) v Stuart Bingham
Stephen Maguire (8) v Jamie Jones
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John Higgins (5) v Tian Pengfei
Mark Williams (12) v Sam Craigie
Mark Allen (13) v Lyu Haotian
Mark Selby (4) v Kurt Maflin
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Neil Robertson (3) v Liang Wenbo
Jack Lisowski (14) v Ali Carter
Barry Hawkins (11) v Matthew Selt
Kyren Wilson (6) v Gary Wilson
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Shaun Murphy (7) v Mark Davis
Yan Bingtao (10) v Martin Gould
David Gilbert (15) v Chris Wakelin
Judd Trump (2) v Liam Highfield
