World Snooker Championship schedule for the 2021 tournament

The 45th World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre begins next month as the sport’s best players battle it out for the most prestigious trophy in snooker history.

Check out all the latest snooker betting odds at William Hill

Ronnie O’Sullivan is the defending champion after seeing off Kyren Wilson in last year’s final. If the Rocket successfully defends his title it would be his seventh triumph – equalling Stephen Hendry’s tally. John Higgins, meanwhile, recorded a 147 break at last year’s tournament – will we see any more this time around?

Ahead of the tournament, we’ve taken a look at the current market leaders as well as the Snooker World Championship schedule. With the draw yet to be made, the World Snooker Championship fixtures are still to be announced.

Judd favourite to Trump O’Sullivan

Judd Trump is the market favourite to add a second world title to his portfolio and leads the World Snooker Championship odds at 11/4. The world number one has won 22 ranking titles since he turned pro in 2005 and has had a solid season so far, winning the English Open, Northern Ireland Open, World Grand Prix, German Masters and the Gibraltar Open. He’s also been runner-up in the Champions League and UK Championship, where he lost a late-night thriller to Aussie Neil Robertson.

O’Sullivan is second in the market, currently priced at 4/1, and will be looking to notch his first ranking title win of the season here as the World Snooker Championship matches get under way. The Rocket reached the finals of the Scottish Open, Welsh Open and Players Championship but has yet to come out on top.

Four-time world champion John Higgins is priced at 8/1, the same as Mark Selby and current UK Championship winner Neil Robertson. Higgins ended his eight-year wait for a Crucible maximum when completing the feat against Kurt Maflin in the second round of last year’s tournament.

Schedule

The World Snooker Championship fixtures will take place as follows:

• First round – April 17-22
• Second round – April 20-26
• Quarter-final – April 27-28
• Semi-finals – April 29-May 1
• Final – May 2-3

First round

Quarter one

• Ronnie O’Sullivan v Mark Joyce
• Anthony McGill v Ricky Walden
• Neil Robertson v Liang Wenbo
• Jack Lisowski v Ali Carter

Quarter two

• Barry Hawkins v Matthew Selt
• Kyren Wilson v Gary Wilson
• John Higgins v Tian Pengfei
• Mark Williams v Sam Craigie

Quarter three

• Mark Allen v Lyu Haotian
• Mark Selby v Kurt Maflin
• Shaun Murphy v Mark Davis
• Yan Bingtao v Martin Gould

Quarter four

• Ding Junhui v Stuart Bingham
• Stephen Maguire v Jamie Jones
• David Gilbert v Chris Wakelin
• Judd Trump v Liam Highfield

Previous winners