The festival of snooker starts inside the historic Crucible Theatre tomorrow for the 2024 World Championship as some of the very best on the baize do battle for the ultimate prize in the sport.
We’ll be here each day to offer up our free tips for the unmissable action in Sheffield, as 31 matches commence over non-stop action for 17 days on the spin.
Let’s take a closer look at the Day 1 action.
Luca Brecel -1.5 frame handicap vs David Gilbert
Besides back-to-back quarter-final runs at the Northern Irish Open, David Gilbert has had little to cheer about over the last few seasons.
Since winning his solitary ranking title at the 2021 Championship League, the “Farmer” hasn’t really challenged the upper echelons of the WST, and the 42-year-old won’t have it easy up against the reigning world champion.
After last year’s historic win in Sheffield, Luca Brecel has had a decent season on tour.
The Belgian finished runner-up at the Shanghai Masters and World Masters of Snooker and reached the quarter-finals of the Welsh Open.
Incredibly, these two have only met once - back in 2015 at the Shanghai Masters, where Brecel ran out a 5-3 winner - so reading into any recent form is non-existent in the head-to-heads.
Brecel should be able to advance with a little bit of wiggle room here.
Judd Trump 1st session winner vs Hossein Vafaei
Judd Trump is rightfully one of the big favourites coming into the 2024 World Championship.
The “Ace in the Pack” has already won five ranking titles this season and is peaking at the perfect time to run deep in his pursuit of a second world title.
Hossein Vafaei is one of the sport’s characters but is perhaps still riding on the wave of winning the Snooker Shootout in 2022 without reaching a final since.
Still, Vafaei is talented and is an aggressive player on the table like his opponent Trump.
The first session could be over in the blink of an eye, and considering his early exit last season, we can’t see Trump giving the Iranian a lead after the first four frames.
Ricky Walden to beat Tom Ford
We’re not convinced in the form of world number 14 Tom Ford.
The 40-year-old has finished as runner-up at the International Championship this season but has failed to advance past the third round in six consecutive ranking events.
Ricky Walden isn’t a prolific winner on tour either, but at 11/10, it is well worth a look in what could turn into a war of attrition over the best of 19-frame format.
Walden has great memories of the Crucible reaching the semi-final in 2013 and only trails Walden 33-30 in frames across their history of head-to-heads.
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