For years it’s been argued that the World Snooker Championship is a sporting test like no other. Seventeen days of snooker – potentially even longer for those coming through qualifying – played in a theatre of all places, one so small it creates a uniquely intimate setting where spectators can almost touch players, and the pressure valve can be ramped up so high it feels like roof on the famous old building might give way to the atmosphere at any point.
It's not for everyone. One of snooker’s greatest ever icons never won there, though he went achingly close on six occasions. Jimmy White is still holding his own on the tour all these years later, but he will never become world champion. Perhaps that same fate will fall to Ding Junhui, winner of just about everything else in the game and the first truly world-class player to come out of China.
It took Judd Trump a fair while to crack the Crucible. Eventually it all came together. Even the great Ronnie O’Sullivan had to wait his turn, fellow Class of '92 pupils John Higgins and Mark Williams beating The Rocket to the punch before he struck gold in 2001. Six more wins since, the last of which came only 12 months ago, have brought him level with Stephen Hendry, a man for so long known as King of the Crucible.
A look at the last 10 winners gives a clear indication of the type of player needed to win the biggest prize in snooker. O’Sullivan has three victories, Mark Selby four, with Trump, Williams and Stuart Bingham the three other winners in that time. Too often when the World Championship comes around, we look for grinders and battlers, but it takes a special blend of craft and guile to triumph in Sheffield.
On that list, Selby is often hailed for his tactical prowess and battling qualities, but barring a semi-final tear-up with Bingham, he was electric in 2021. So too was Bingham when he won in 2015. As for O’Sullivan, Trump and Williams, even their dirty stuff is rarely ugly.
Of course, having that ability to limit the damage in those bad sessions that always come along in multi-session matches and 17 days of snooker is crucial, and Selby is a master at that, but you have to be able to win others easily. Be able to pot and score and thus leave something in the tank for the latter stages. It’s what O’Sullivan did so well in 2022.
And perhaps above all else, being able to not only handle pressure, but thrive on it, is what separates a great Crucible player from a good one. It’s what has helped Higgins win four times here and reach four more finals, and it’s probably the reason why it took Trump as long as he did to become world champion. All players will say the same – when it comes to pressure, the Crucible is out on its own.
That was the reason I was so keen on the chances of MARK SELBY in 2021 and with things seemingly falling nicely into place once again this year, the 39-year-old heads the staking plan and is backed to win what would be a fifth World Championship.
I’ve already listed many of the qualities needed to be world champion, ones Selby so clearly boasts, but we shouldn’t underestimate just how dominant he has been in this event in the last 10 years. As well as winning four times, he was desperately unlucky to lose a pulsating semi-final with O’Sullivan in 2021, a match that ultimately decided the outcome of the tournament.
There have been early losses in those years, too, but he can certainly be excused last year’s second-round exit at the end of a season where most of his energy had been taken up with batting depression, something he'd opened up about just months earlier. As such, last year’s appearance always felt like it was another step on the road to recovery more than mounting a meaningful title defence.
In the same section of the draw are Higgins and Wilson, and while their potential second-round tie could be one to savour, I’d much prefer Selby over either of that pair if they met in the last eight. Higgins looks to be playing well again, but Selby had his number in the final here in 2017, while his head-to-record against Wilson is particularly favourable (14-6).
Looking even further ahead, Robertson could theoretically lie in wait for Selby in the semi-finals. In no uncertain terms, Robertson has had the measure of Selby in the last few years, but Selby did win their most recent meeting at the English Open, and crucially, their last match at the World Championship in 2020, winning easily 13-7.
I did give some thought to Bingham, another former champion who has shown flashes of his best this term without finding the consistency that propelled him to title glory in 2015.
On first inspection, there isn’t really much to recommend him on recent evidence. In fact, this season has been a poor one, though it was just the same when he defied the odds to win the Masters in brilliant fashion in early 2020. It was a similar story here in 2021, when Bingham had largely struggled before finding his touch and reaching the last four.
Bingham has always been a streaky player who can be very hard to stop when on a roll. He showed glimpses of that when numbering Wilson and Murphy among his victims at the Masters in January, and should take plenty of encouragement from quarter-final finishes at the WST Classic and Six Reds in recent weeks.
It wouldn’t be the greatest surprise were Bingham to suddenly burst back to form and have a deep run, but he finds himself drawn in a really tough section along with Robertson, Ali Carter and Mark Allen. Furthermore, David Gilbert is a tough first first-round draw.
Allen has enjoyed a terrific campaign, winning the Northern Ireland Open, UK Championship and World Grand Prix, but his form has really tailed off since and it will take something special for him to recapture his best game at this stage of the season.
It's for similar reasons I can leave out Carter, having had the German Masters hero in mind for Sheffield not so long ago. He has also made the Players Championship final since Christmas, but I expected more from him at the Tour Championship and looking back, he was firmly put in his place by Selby in the semi-finals of the WST Classic.
Carter might well have played his best snooker already this season and as such, I’m happy to leave this section alone entirely.
In the top half of the draw, things really hot up with Murphy propping up the second section and now finding himself chalked up at 9/1 on the back of wins at the Players and Tour Championship.
It seems highly likely that Williams will give us a good run for our money again and both he and Selby are two former champions who have passed this unique test many times before and know just what is takes to land the jewel in snooker’s crown.
Make no mistake, the World Championship really is a sporting test like no other, but there is a method needed to tame its madness, and these two vastly experienced, wise heads can usually be relied upon to come good when the Crucible opens its doors for business.
Preview published at 1000 BST on 13/04/23